Bernd Heinrich is probably the Indiana Jones of ultra running. His scientific research and ultra running credentials are amazing and this book is an absolute must read for anyone into distance running and the science behind it.
Bernd was a very good runner at school, getting somewhere near the 4 minute mile as a kid. He put the running down for a while to work in Africa and developed further his love of the natural world. He worked as a biologist and became fascinated in the endurance and running capabilities of animals. He looked at nature and asked some of these questions;
How does a bumble bee or a moth flap it's wings 1000s of times a minute and not overheat? The thing should turn into a ball of flames.
How do birds manage to fly 3000 miles non-stop over several days without re-fueling?
How can a Pronghorn Antelope run 10k in 7 minutes? What kind of VO2 Max would that require
He experimented and found the answers to these which make great reading. However the best bits are where he looks at the endurance capabilities of humans and experiments on himself.
Humans are endurance animals. This theory has been presented well in other books (Survival of the Fittest and Born to Run). We make lousy sprinters (Usain Bolt would lose a 100m race to most 4-legged mammals including rabbits). Our ability to go long and persistence hunt is what makes us unique in the animal kingdom. We have abilities to dissipate heat so that we can run in deserts rather than merely plod like camels.
Bernd then puts his running shoes back on and starts training hard for races, running a 2.22 marathon and breaking the US 100k record in the process. He trained hard and experiemented based on what he learned from nature rather than running wisdom. My favourite experiment was where he left cans of beer on his long runs to pick up and drink.
I like books that reassure me that what I do is normal and sustainable. I liked this book a lot.
It had to happen after our month of tropical temperatures and unbroken sunshine. Farmers, gardeners and otters were thankful of the reprieve. 80 runners with 53 miles to run and maps to read were a little less enthusiastic.
It was an early start to the day, getting up at 5.30 for a 2.30 hour drive to the start. That bit went well, somehow we put the wrong postcode into the satnav and ended up at checkpoint 1 trying to find signs of the start of a race. Then looking at the website for the proper start address we discovered that the race starts half an hour before we thought, at 9am. We managed to get there at 8.45, not much time to faff around before we were all sent off into the Severn Path.
We started the Malvern Hills Ultra from Holt Castle a few miles outside of Worcester. I did remark right as we started “well at least it’s not raining”. It did about 5 minutes later and did not stop for 3 hours. The first 20 miles or so were along the path of the river Severn, quite flat but on nice trail and through trees. I was in a group being led by Rob Westaway who I was trying to hang onto for the navigation.
I didn’t have any maps or route description which were crucial in this race. I left them at Gemma’s and did not pick up a spare set at the start. Claire Shelley managed to leave hers in the car in our haste to get to the start. The trail along the river became wide fields and we could see for a mile in front of us and this is where Rob sped off and pulled a lot of the others with him. SO then it was me and Claire in the middle of a field in a navigation race with no maps. What could go wrong?
We did get to the first “punch point” where we’d stamp our cards at an unmanned post and then soon after we got to the second checkpoint and were being caught up by others. Around 20 miles in there is a section through a nice town with lots of nice pubs. It had stopped raining, the sun had come out, I was a bit knackered and didn’t really know where to go. I was so tempted to just pull out there, head to the pub, get a taxi back to the start and be done with it. I think Claire was thinking the same thing. We just sat down on a bench and considered our options and then Nicole Brown came running up towards us.
Ok so if we can hang on to Nx and Mark who she was running with we may have a chance. I still just could not be bothered though. At this point I asked Claire what the time was knowing that her Garmin would not be able to give her such information. She looked at it and said that she had not even switched it on yet. She was wearing it as a fashion bracelet.
The next few miles were on country lanes and in the distance we could see a beautiful chain of hills. That was where we were heading, along these roads to the start of the chain and then up and over the tops of them. I was looking forward to some hills. There was a long climb up to the first one and then back down into the third checkpoint at about 28 miles. I felt like I was holding people up at the back and really wanted to drop out. I figured 28 miles was a reasonable run for the day and I could try and do the same tomorrow. But it would be silly to do this and only complete the flat river bit wouldn’t it? The next miles were over the tops of those hills and with the sun shining it would be a sin to miss it. I decided to carry on and drop out at the next checkpoint at about 35 miles.
There was nothing wrong with me. I was not injured, nothing hurt more than it usually would at this stage. It was a great course, well organised and I had good company but I just could not be arsed with it today, my head just was not in it. I texted Gemma to say that I wanted curry for dinner tonight and spent the next few hours just craving sitting down and eating curry. I was justifying in my head how it was the right thing to do to just pull out and head home and eat at a reasonable time.
The ridge was amazing, by now there were a lot of walkers out but you could see for miles down on all the surrounding towns. I was really glad the rain stopped for this. I found a bit of energy to keep up with the rest of the guys as we tried to find the punch points we had to stop at. One was advertised as being on top of the highest peak which it wasn’t, it must have been removed by someone. Maybe some similar group to the people who removed signs in the new forest last week. Mark surveyed all the possible hill-tops around but could not find it. There was a 10 minute penalty for every one missed and we spent about 10 minutes looking for it and not finding it. We could not find the next one either, again spending about 10 minutes stopping and going back and looking. Correction – Mark and Nicole went looking for it, I sat down and looked forward to the next checkpoint where I could drop out.
After a few hours in the hills we were in a forest and some lovely trails. There was one huge climb and some steep descents. The path held up very well despite the rain. Our group had got bigger as we plodded on through the trails.
The next checkpoint was at a pub, around 35 miles in and I just craved orange and lemonade which was strange. I still was OK but still really wanted to drop out. Another 18 miles sounded like a lot of work however we did not hang around enough for me to get comfortable and we were off again, Nicole and Claire dragging everyone else along.
I’m glad I didn’t really have time to think. The gap to the next checkpoint was about 10 miles which at our pace was 2 hours. Another 2 hours of this and then maybe 2 more seemed like too much effort. Apart from the checkpoints there was no where I could really get a cab from, it was quite isolated for the whole thing. It was a great route that managed to avoid large sections of busy road.
By now the group were flagging a bit. Claire was still bouncing away with more energy than she had in the first 10 miles and Nx was making sure that anything flat or downhill was run by everyone. I stayed a safe distance behind and moped a bit.
Still unsure what the source of my CBA was I stopped thinking about how I can bail from the race and instead thought about what is required to finish. It started to piss it down again and I still was not enjoying it but thought about the summer where I may well have days and even weeks like this. I’ve been told several times to treat the USA run “as a job” and in any job you are going to have shit days that just seem pointless. I’m going to have to struggle through those days for something that is much bigger overall. I just need to finish the job today and maybe tomorrow would be better. Also I realised that I needed the dry T-Shirt for finishing as I had not brought much of a change of clothes.
The rain got heavier. It was still warm and I was still sweating all over the place but determined to hang onto the gang. When the Garmins said we had about 7 miles to go I didn’t believe it, it was more like 10. I was right, not that I can complain as the others were doing the map reading because of my own stupidity. If I had my own maps I may have slowed to a walk and navigated myself and finished hours later than we did.
The rain did not dampen anyones enthusiasm as we were near the end. I could not take any photos near the start or end of the race as the phone had to go in the bag to stop getting wet. The last checkpoint was 7.5 miles to the end, 3 parks. I can do this.
There were a couple more punch points that we struggled to get our soggy bits of paper out to stamp. A small section on a very steep road then some more woodlands and trails and into a field where we could see Holt Castle. Over a barbed wire fence and along the road and into the castle. I had not felt so relieved to get to a finish line for some time. The 6 of us crossed together in 11.11.
I’m not sure what the winning time was but Ryan and Kevin McMillan were joint second in just over 9 hours and Rob did an amazing 9.40 for 4th. Not many people under 10 hours suggests that this was a tough one.
Everyone found it tough without really knowing why and I took heart in other peoples misery. The weather was a bit miserable in places and there was some navigation involved (not nearly as much as an LDWA event, the trail signposts were all very obvious). It was hilly but not too much so and I had great company. I just put this down to “one of those days”.
It’s funny that I chatted to Ryan at the end who said that while he and Kevin were grumpily plodding on they wondered whether I have these times as I seem to just plod through everything with a smile on my face. Today I had 11 hours of that. Halfway through I was thinking “why the hell to I feel so shit after only 25 miles and what does this mean for the summer?” Now I am thinking “I can do 55 miles while feeling like a bag of shit”. The latter way of thinking about it gives me more confidence about the summer.
The drive back was long (note next year probably stay locally that night) and I didn’t get in till gone midnight and had re-heated curry on my own. Wasn’t quite the end of the day I was expecting but it was OK. Thanks to Claire and Nicole for dragging me around, Thanks to Rob for doing all the driving. It was a great day really.
There was an 83 mile ultra being run at the same time as this, I could not imagine doing that though I am sure that if I had entered I’d have finished. Before the start of the race I spoke to Steve Partridge who was talking about another race from Ultra Running Ltd next year. The "7" - 214 miles in 5 days along the Severn Path promising to take you to “your own personal edge of darkness”. This trail managed that in less than 20 miles, it would be rude not to try 200+.
The race briefing declared that that 45% of the entry were women. This is very unusual in running races generally and more so in ultra running. What a great day for equality said most of the men. Well actually no, I think most were thinking about how the lovely views were going to be supplemented by, erm.. lovely views. The Pony Express – voted Britain’s best race for pulling in.
The Pony Express was named because of the wild ponies that live in the New Forest. This ancient forest was another one of those places in the UK that I had never been to despite it only being a two hour drive from London. We were all glad to get out of London for the weekend. The majesty of ancient trees and wild animals would certainly eclipse the majesty of the future his-majesty spending millions of public money parading thousands of expensive dressed up military ornaments. I could not bear to wait for the news that a year of my taxes had been used to present Posh Spice with a meal that she would barely touch. Still, the bank holiday was welcome though. Part of the Serpentine Ultra-Running Army
Right then the race. This was a new addition to the expanding portfolio of great events that Neil Thubron and XNRG are putting on around the UK. We were to run 30 miles each day on Saturday and Sunday on the trails of the New Forest. Unlike other XNRG events these were not along a continuous national trail such as the Ridgeway or the North Downs Way but will involve combinations of lots of different trails, lots of turns and unfortunately for most of us lots of navigating.
Neil also warned us at the race briefing that the forest folk don’t take too kindly to signs being put up in their area. Neil had paid for the privilege of being allowed to put up some arrows for the event but soon discovered that the locals had removed many of them.
I started in the “middle” group at 10am which was probably unwise as I ended up being near the front of the pack and hence more responsible for navigation. It was actually much easier than I thought, keeping my place on the map and knowing approximately when to expect a turn. I ran with Cleo Oliver and Chris (who I’d met a couple of years ago in Davos).
The first 10 miles to the first checkpoint were fairly well covered by the trees and were really nice to run. After that we ran along some exposed railway path where the sun started doing it’s work. Our group of 3 turned into a group of about 8 with Dan De Belder and another lady Beth, a Serpie John and some others catching up with us.
We had navigated quite well but hit a problem around 15 miles in where there was a t junction in the woods and were not sure whether we should go left or right. The map was not big enough to make it clear so we opted to go left on getting the compass out and realising that we should be heading due west. If it were just one person deciding we would have turned left within seconds, however as there was a committee of us we debated for a long time before marginally deciding to go the right way.
At the second CP Rob and the other leading guy caught up with us having got lost the same place we nearly did earlier. He had done another couple of miles in a loop but managed to get back on track. Rob and Alex then pushed on ahead taking the 2 girls with him.
The route cut through some farms and Ian Payne came smashing it up behind me. I can normally rely on him to cramp up around 20 miles in any long run and have to walk the rest but he was doing the opposite here, bounding past us all quite comfortably. He was only doing the one day though because he is a triathlete and I think his training spreadsheet said that he should spend 6 hours of Sunday watching DVD’s about swimming technique.
I was quite pleased with being able to keep up a reasonable pace and got running with a chap called Andy who told me this was his first run of more than 20 miles. We got to the third checkpoint 20 minutes before it was due to open and saw Rob there with the ladies (Alex had run off quite fast). I had been drinking lots and looking forward to getting more cold drink and luckily there were some supporters on hand to give us some water. It was our own fault for starting at 10 rather than 11.
I thought about staying until more water was available but figured I could be halfway to the end by the time they get there, I had about 10k left to go and just wanted to get on with it. Neil met us about a mile later with some cold water so I didn’t have to worry about fluid anymore.
I continued with Chris chatting away and behind in the distance I could see a Serpie gaining on us fast. I figured it was John having a second wind but almost as quickly as I thought that Huw Lobb came bounding past, having started an hour later he was making light work of this run. I was surprised that he didn’t get more lost but he’s actually good at running while reading a map. Might have to put him in a race with Alan Hall.
With only a few miles to go there is a section through Ringwood which we didn’t quite do correctly. We were supposed to follow the Malvern Trail which we did except for a time where we arrived in Ringwood and could not see any signs. We asked some locals who were very helpful indeed, too helpful in fact.
Yes yes I know where the footpath is. You follow this road, past the traffic lights up to the car park, go straight through the car park up to the car dealers, it used to be a lovely bakery but it closed 12 years ago. After the car dealers you will see a café that our Alice used to work in a few years back while she was at college. This time of year it has a lovely garden with marigolds and tulips. Anyway, please give me back my map.
Andy and I managed to retrieve our maps from the too helpful locals and head on up in the general direction of the finish but missed an underpass and went over a busy roundabout instead. No bother really and soon we saw the School where the finish was and got the job done in just under 5 hours.
It was only 3 in the afternoon, the sun was blazing, I had just done a long run and felt that deserved a bottle of beer (or several). Anna who helps with the organisation told us to get in the showers asap before the masses start coming in. She told me to use the ladies as they were not being used. I asked just to make sure that it was ok and then went into the ladies to find a startled Cleo in there. Wasn’t my fault honest.
After the shower we sat outside at the finish with beer and clapped the others in. Jen Bradley was a little nonplussed with getting quite lost near the end but still came in in a great time. Gemma finished around 6 hours and had me doing shuttle runs for her soya milk for the next hour. Mark Bell, Alex Pearson soon followed. We saw Alex (the guy who was leading of the 10am starters) finish about an hour after we did and soaking wet. He had gone really wrong and ended up jumping in a river to cross to get back on route. He looked exhausted and very wet. Later in the pub he told us he had never done a marathon before and only did this in competition with his brother who was about to run a marathon in Afghanistan (800m laps of some army complex).
The location of the finish was perfect. We set up our sleeping bags and mats in the sports hall and went to the pub that was only a short walk. A little walk and a few pints of local ale seemed like the perfect way to unwind from a day running. The event included dinner and breakfast and both were really good. For dinner there was a simple but recovery friendly option of chicken or quorn and veg and potatoes. Salad was also on offer for those people who really did not get the point of ultra-running.
I managed to get drunk enough to sleep well at night which can be a problem when sleeping in a room with about 50 other people. Some of the women snore and fart terribly.
It rained heavily during the night which would not have much of an effect on the run the next day except that I had left my trainers outside to protect people from the smell. Doh.
Sunday morning the starts were earlier, 7, 8 and 9. As one of the faster finishers I was put on the 9 start with Rob, Jen and most of the people I ran with yesterday. This was fine, it gave me a couple of hours to let the massive fry up to settle, they had done really well with the food here. I could have posted about 10 pictures of Jen's arse but I decided to go for this one instead
There only ended up being 10 of us at the 9am start, Neil had sent the ladies off on the 8 at their request except Jen was not around so was the only female in the 9 start. The 3 guys who were leading of those doing the 2 days (coming in just over 4 hours yesterday) shot off into the distance and I made a vain attempt to keep up with Rob who was charging off too but he lost me on the hills. There were more hills today (or rather there were hills today).
After a few miles Jen and the other 4 caught up and we ran as a group for most of the rest. We were running across the top of a ridge and it was quite windy. It was we were going to get most of this done before the heat of the day kicked in.
I thought the route on day 2 was much nicer, there was less twisting and turning on the map and more open viewing points and tall forests. Though I was keeping my eye on the map in case I lost the group I was just following Jen and Sandy who were doing the majority of the navigation. If I were on my own I would have probably walked up the hills, Jen was determined not to walk any of them and was beasting the 5 guys up every one of them, shouting at us if we walked. She was in a rush to get back for the Arsenal Vs Man Utd game later and needed to finish in 5 hours. Essentially 5 guys were getting pulled along by a girl who was desperate to get back for the football. What has the world come to?
At the start of each day we were warned about adders in the forest. A warning usually taken lightly except there had been a couple of sightings on the first day so I was looking out for one. I love the wild ponies and cows in the New Forest, they are completely disinterested in humans. They don’t run away but neither do they respond in any way if you stroke them. Checkpoint 2 was quite funny, there as a pony with it’s face in the cake and was not moving. I thought it had been tied there somehow but it was just wanting to eat the famous Rocky Road cake that powers most of the runners along this. This pony spend a long time slobbering on the cake
Oddly I did not eat much and the checkpoints this weekend. Apart from drink I only recall having a couple of pretzels and one piece of cake. This is unlike mewhen there is cheese, sausage and sweets on offer. I did have two fry-ups for breakfast though.
After the first checkpoint we started to overtake the runners from previous waves and soon caught up with some familiar faces. We passed Alex just before the last checkpoint. I sprinted ahead to see him and say hello only to get a photo of Jen from the front. In struggling to keep up I had already taken about 10 photos of her arse and did not want to be branded a pervert again after yesterday’s changing room episode.
After CP3 I saw Gemma in the distance and considered my dilemma. Should I run the rest with her and earn some brownie points or should I press on so to be able to have more beer at the finish? Gemma was running with a lady called Carol Ann who was running her 150th marathon/ultra today so figured she was in good hands.
Not long after that we got a bit lost. On going into some woods and over a brook we must have gone along a path that was not really a path (well not marked on the map anyway) and cut through and come out at the wrong point. Some of the locals had removed the signs again in protest against marauding ultra-runners and we ended up not really knowing where we were. There were some people out walking with a map.
We had different maps and neither had any of the same reference points. We’d say “where are we in relation to Badger’s Shrub” and they’d say “That’s not on our map, you are about a mile south of Otters Dyke” and we’d say “That’s not on our map, I reckon we are somewhere west of Adder’s tail” and they’d say “That’s not on our map, maybe you should make an approach for Donkey’s End?”
Realising this could go on and on we chose to try and take a path heading south towards Brockenhurst and hope to regain our position somehow. There were about 10 of us now which prolonged the decision making but we got there in the end, unanimously deciding to go wrong. We got the compass out and took a rough bearing. I was amazed that I convinced some people that I knew how to use a compass.
It didn’t make too much difference. I think we cut out a bit of the route but made up for it by hitting the road into Brockenhurst a bit early and running a few miles of road. It felt a bit disappointing to finish with a longer stretch road than we should but we could have spent all day in that forest. Jen was on a mission now, cutting the 5 hour finish a bit fine. I did point out that Man U score all their goals in the last minute anyway so she had a couple more hours still but she was having none of it and sped off.
We all finished in very similar times to the previous day. Rob took about 20 minutes less on dya 2 as did Jen by just scraping under 5. I did about 5.01 which meant less than 10 hours for both runs. I was really pleased with that, when I head to the US I’ll be going a bit slower than that and taking more walking breaks (even if I do get shouted at). I thought I had time to pop inside and get a beer and come to watch Gemma finish but she was too quick too, finishing just a few minutes after me.
I hit the shower (MENS) and came out for the prize giving and to chat to some of the people I bumped into along the way. The 3 leading guys finished in just over 4 hours again, deciding not to race in amongst themselves today so only a few minutes from the first day separated them. Beth won the womens race and Jen was just behind in 2nd, not far off first and would have been in with a shout if she had not explored more of the A338 on day 1.
We retired the to pub to hear that Man U had lost while I tried to recruit Sandy to the ever expanding Serpentine Ultra-Running Army.
So all in all a great 2 days of running for me and another great show from XNRG. Shame I can’t do their next 2 events on the Isle of Wight and on the Thames Path. Hopefully Neil can finally crack that 50/50 male/female split next time. I’ll be sure to bring my ear plugs and wear them during the race too.
It was another glorious weekend in the UK. Defra warned the asthmatics to stay indoors with the windows closed at the same time Playstation announced that their network had been hacked and that those 30 year old virgins who planned on following Defra’s advice and playing dragon games wouldn’t be able to do so. Perhaps is was part of a plan to get people outside? It would have been a crime to stay indoors for any reason this weekend, the first of our 2 long weekends in the UK this month.
Like last Easter about 2 dozen Serpies travelled up to the Lake District. A stunning series of lakes and hills in the North East of England where you are only ever minutes away from a hug ascent on slippery scree and about an hour away from the top of something where you can see the whole lot. We stayed in Keswick again, in the same B&B as last time only this year was vastly different. Similar crowd but amazingly better weather.
On Friday we drove up just in time to get a few hours of running in the hills before heading off to the pub. I have no idea where we went as we were following Claire Shelley, I swear that girl will do the Bob Graham Round one day; accidentally.
On Saturday about 12 Serpies pitched up at the start of the Anniversary Waltz, a 11.3 mile fell race starting in Chair and going up and over some of the hills. We were told at the beginning to “add around an hour to your half marathon time” for an estimated finish.
We were in amongst proper fell runners. This is a race reviewed in depth by Richard Askwith in Feet in the Clouds as being huge on the fell racing calendar. We collected out numbers that were given out in alphabetical order and I was keen to parade my number 1 around (In your face Tim). I guessed that the field here was going to be incredibly strong and although there were some quick Serpies here there were dozens of fell running specialists who could make us all look like a southern softy London road running club.
Gemma was not feeling too great so I agreed to “plod along near the back” with her which was fine by me. What I didn’t realise was that we actually would be right at the back. The first 3 miles were nothing too strenuous, a little up hill (think Parliament hill times 6) and then off into the mountains, the first one being Robinson.
Gemma and I were almost at the back despite not feeling like we were going that slow. If this were an ultra then we’d be in the middle somewhere, it seems that only proper hardcore fell runners even enter this one.
This race involves one really big climb into the mountains then a succession of ridges where you go up and down a bit but not as much as in the first instance. The climb up Robinson was immense. There was a choice of 2 paths, one indirect (very steep) and one direct (very very steep). I took the latter and am not sure whether it was the better choice. There we 5 checkpoints to go through and in fell races any route is fair game. There are paths you can take between points but if you feel you can get from A to B faster by running over rocks, through trees, off cliffs or whatever then you are welcome to go for it.
The ascent was lung busting and needed use of my arms. The conditions were perfect but the dew on the grass still made slipping a frequent event. If it were pissing it down like last year I can’t imagine being able to propel my body up this one. Near the top it got misty, visibility reduced to about 10 meters and that stuck with us for most of the remainder of the race.
With only 10 meters to see and being at the back it was hard to figure out where we were going. We laughed near the start about the compulsory need for maps, compasses and water proofs but seeing how quickly we ascended into the clouds I can understand their concern. We had to get out the maps quite a lot and every now and then a runner would just come towards us from a random direction having gone the wrong way.
The downhill sections were steep and uneven. This is a very different race to anything I’ve done in the Alps where the paths are just as steep but the footing is generally good. Fell running in the lakes is a very specialist form of running which is why to do the Bob Graham Round you really need to have been up here lots of times before.
On one of the downhill sections we were overtaken by a man walking his dog. That’s never happened to me in a race before. The dog was much more sure footed than either of us. There were a few opportunities for us to take the direct (suicidal) route to the next checkpoint but decided on the path instead.
We fought through the mist and over through the remaining checkpoints and towards the end we were overtaken by the guys in the longer run of around 19 miles, I can’t believe I had not heard of that one but given that this took the best part of 4 hours it’s probably just as well. At the end there was free beer which I had a couple of and would have stayed for more but the others who had finished who were bored of waiting for me to finish wanted to head back.
There were some great efforts from the Serpies. Wes ran an impressive 2.03, Gavin, Rob and James Edgar were not far behind. Jen and Fiona ranked well amongst the girls and hopefully between them demonstrated that we are not a completely lame bunch of road runners. However when I entered the field at the end of the race I was met with a comment from a sympathetic looking kid who sagely said “I think you may actually be last”.
James will have to come back here next year and do something like that 7 times in 24 hours. Some of the hills we went up don’t even feature on the round as they are not high enough.
I felt like I had done enough for the day and had fish and chips shortly followed by burger and chips and a lot of beer.
Sunday due to an unexplained internal head injury I did not get up till noon but had a fantastic day walking with Gemma up the steep side of Skiddaw and back down the other side. I later managed a half portion of Keswicks famous Cow Pie. I had half of one last year and finishing it drained all the life out of me. This year was not quite so bad but I wonder how hungry you’d have to be to manage a whole one? Perhaps after doing the whole Bob Graham? If you can stay awake that long.
Was certainly a question Drew and I were asking at 2.45am on Sunday morning while the rest of London was asleep in total darkness. We could just go back to bed and get up at a normal time, head over to the London Marathon and cheer along the carnival, possibly via McDonalds and then just drink the afternoon away. Seemed like a perfect way to spend a sunny Sunday.
However our plan was different, we were up in the middle of the night to head over to Big Ben for 4am to meet Robin Harvie; author of Why We Run, to then run the London Marathon route in reverse. Why?
Drew and I set out, along the canal where even the geese were asleep and then on down a lively Edgeware Road that was still alive and the smell of shisha and the aura of mocking washed over us. We arrived at Big Ben around 3.45 and waited for the clock to strike 4 to head off on our meander back to Greenwich Park.
There were 7 of us in total. Myself, Drew, Mark, Rob, Alex, Hugh and Robin. The first few miles along the embankment were fairly easy going though and all the mile markers were already out there. Felt odd running through 25, then 24, then 23 etc. It was already quite warm and the weather reports promised a warm and sunny marathon later on.
Rob and Mark were setting a faster pace in front and the rest of us were happy to be plodding along at 4 hour marathon pace. I got a chance to chat to Robin about running and his book and future running plans as we counted down the miles.
Why We Run - The Book
It would be easy to compare this book to Feet in the Clouds and since I am a big fan of making things easy I think I will. There are a a few similarities. Both are very well written and are from the point of view of a "normal" runner, not a super-athlete. Both detail an obsession with a brutally hard endurance event. Both stories are told alongside the histories of those who have done the same before them. The key difference here was that the obsession was much closer to home for me. It was about the Spartathlon.
Robin is a normal guy, as far as you can call ultra-running and Spartathlons "normal". His journey into Ultras is quite similar to mine (and many others I am sure). He ran a few marathons, felt like he hit a plateux in terms of time and decided to go longer instead. He picked the Spartathlon as the race to do and set about an intense and time-consuming training schedule, much of it on the river Thames. I may have crossed paths with him along that river while training for the same thing. Just passing half way around 6am
There is a great account of the ancient olympics and some of the history of great endurance runners. This fits in perfectly with his accounts on training, his own motivations as to why he should take on something like the Spartathlon and his quest to discover why we run. I thoroughly recommend reading his account. Any of you obsessed with an endurance event (and I am guessing if you are here you will be) then this book is well worth reading.
So, back to the run. Why am I doing this again?
I continued to chat to Robin about the Spartathlon and said it was great that the race was getting some recognition as being the toughest race out there. All those I know who have done this and the other so called toughest (you know what they are) agree that running from Athens to Sparta in 36 hours agree that this is on top. His recent article in the Telegraph is a great read.
Poplar high street and Canary Wharf were very quiet at 5am, in just a few hours they will be overwhelmed with loud and colourful support. Day started to break around 5.30 and from 6 at the halfway point on the Tower Bridge there were signs of life as people in high-vis jackets started to build the huge event that is the London Marathon.
Over the bridge and into Bermondsey it felt odd to be running a course that I had done 4 times before through a city that I have lived in for 7 years and finding that I just did not recognise any of it. This part of the route is fairly residential and quiet at 7am. As we approached Greenwich the roads were being closed, the water stations loaded and masses of marshalls were assembling.
I felt quite good until arond the half marathon point. It has been a long time since I have ran this distance, not since my operation and it showed a bit. I also can't remember the last time I ran this much on roads, it was probably the Spartathlon last year. All of my races this year have been off road. I am not too worried though about having to run 45 miles on a road each day for 70 days.
My "plan" for the US would be to run at about the pace we were running here, about 9 minute miles but add lots of walking breaks in there so to finish 45 miles in around 10 hours. I think not having had any sleep the night before made it harder too.
I lost count of the number of people who shouted "you are going the wrong way". We saw a guy coming the other way who was doing the marathon 5 times. Not sure how he planned on doing that as he would have ended up at the end when it started.
There seemed to be some significant climbs heading into Greenwich which probably explains why people go so fast at the start going down them. By now the water stations were fully functional and waiting for the race to start in a couple of hours time.
It's amazing just what in event this is. Unlike other events this closes down one of the worlds biggest cities to stage this event. It is awesome to see just how many lorries full of water, energy drink, fences, cones etc are needed to make every single miles of this race. Glad I was not running the other way though.
We got to the start bang on 8, bang on target. I felt really quite knackered, more so than I would usually after doing the same much faster. I was really pleased to have got up. We said goodbye to Robin who was later on the TV and we walked through the starting areas. Ha ha ha these chumps have not even run a marathon yet today. Robin and the start line we were not allowed to cross
We got more of the "you are going the wrong way" remarks as we left the starting area to leave.
I spent the afternoon handing out water at the 20 mile water station. I was tired and though it does not sound like it handing out water is quite exhausting. I've done it a few times and trying to stay focussed while zombified runners stagger over and take water or miss you completely. It is great to be involved in this race. I take the piss out of it quite a lot but I wished I was there running.
And then off to the pub. I did well to stay awake so long, call it training. I'll need this kind of endurance. It was really great fun to run the London Marathon in reverse, great to meet Robin (and his book is really really good so I suggest you buy it) and made me think about why I run? While sat outside a pub on a hot afternoon with a MASSIVE calorie deficit to deal with I couldn't quite figure it out...
Something I made for Ben's birthday to help him in his next marathon.
Note this is not actually "The" Ian Sharman.
A GUIDE TO MARATHON AWESOMENESS
By Ian Sharman
Hi I’m Ian Sharman, but you can call be Sir Awesomealot. You may remember me from such classics as “Sir Awesomeness slays the Racoon”, “Ian Sharmanates the Luton 3” and my less known classic “When in Rome…”
I’m here today to show you how to achieve Marathon greatness by staying focused and avoiding the common mistakes made by your peers. Let me tell you, I’ve seen some dicks in my time.
I will then will give you a mile by mile guide of how to run a sub 2.50 marathon, and I should know, I have run over 27 of them, often in a silly costume.
I shall conclude by mocking your efforts whatever the outcome.
Firstly, here are some common pit-falls that have beset some of your Serpie Colleagues.
Bampfishing – Not being able to compete in the marathon because of a faulty boiler at home. Ensure all of your plumbing is insured and serviced within 2 months of marathon day.
Taylording – Banging on and on about how you are going win, magnified by power of 10 stalking only to be overtaken by a girl on race day. Avoid power of 10, it’s gay.
Copasing (Level 1) – Setting out too fast and blowing up. One minute you look as if you are miles ahead and the next you are being trodden on my the competition.
Copasing (Level 2) – Going the wrong way. This is almost impossible in a busy city road marathon but it has been known to happen 3 times in the UK in the past few years. To the same guy. What are the odds?
Copasing (Meltdown) – A combination of Level 1 and Level 2 Copasing result in a meltdown where you have to get escorted from the course on a stretcher. The photos of this disaster will be uploaded onto Facebook and make you look like an idiot forever.
Theoing – Shoes generally come in two varieties; Left and Right. The way to tell is to place them side by side on the ground. They should curve toward each other. If they curve in the same direction then you have made a mistake. Remember to take one of each to the race, preferable both being the same brand.
Wilcoxing – Generally running like a twat. Avoid
Paynusing – Running around with a headband because you have girl’s hair.
Westawaying – Slightly stupider than a Theoing, turning up to the event without any shoes to run in.
Braleying – Demanding your own private portloo in someone’s house. This just eats into your time and you have to remember their address to send them an apology.
Hooing – Deciding after 20 miles that you can’t be arsed anymore and getting a cab. Call Argent Taxi’s on 01789 294436
Centibelling – Wear comfy shoes to avoid the agony of de feat. Don’t start off too fast, it will be better in the long run, don’t create a scene in the Shakespeare marathon or you may be bard.
The Marathon*
OK, obviously I don’t mean “The” Marathon, that one is way too hard for you. Perhaps if you run this marathon well you may be able to tackle “The” Marathon. Maybe.
OK, you are at the start line. It looks busy doesn’t it? These people around you are the enemy. They are to be destroyed at all costs. Psyche out your opposition early on by;
Doing some really weird stretches that no one has ever seen before
Putting your Garmin around your ankle
Going up to people and saying “well obviously you know who I am, what is your name?”
Gregorian Chanting
First few miles – You should take these easy, remember the test is whether you can hold a conversation. Try this – run alongside another runner and say “yes I am well trained for this event, I intend to take this easy and jog 2.45 averaging 6.20 minute miles with my heart rate averaging 120 beats per minute and my cadence staying at 90 so to prove my awesomeness”. If you can say all that without struggling then you have got the correct pace. Also they will get bored and run off too fast and will blow up. More meat for later…
Mile 5 – You should be soaking up the occasion. The crowd will be full of useful wisdom such as “keep going”. I can’t imagine being able to run without being reminded of that every 36 seconds. Also if you are wearing your Serpie top you will no doubt come across many people shouting “Do you know James Adams?” Ignore these people, they are idiots.
Mile 7.2 – Congratulations, you have just run 3 parks. Only 19 miles to go. Sounds easy when you put it like that doesn’t it? No? Bugger. Now you’ve got it stuck in your head and can’t get it out can you? Shit, 19 miles is a long way. OK, try some simple visualisation techniques to get you out of this slump.
Mile 8 – Imagine you have just jogged back to the Seymour Centre. You float down the corridors and enter a room that smells of cheese. Let the smell of cheese carry you on.
Mile 9 – You enter a room full of naked men. One of them is drying his nuts in the hair dryer. Another is flossing his vigorously with a towel.
Mile 10 – You are now in the shower. You are cleansing yourself of all the pain that running has caused. Feel uplifted by the lemony smell of your body getting massaged by the water. Don’t look at the guy who is breaking all the rules by bending down and touching his toes in the shower. Try not to think about it too much. Seriously stop it.
Mile 13.1 – Half way there. Whooo Whoah, livin on a prayer. SING IT
Mile 16 – This is when it starts to get hard now. Your body has switched from carb burning to fat burning , or to put it more scientifically it has gone from burning Jelly Babies to burning Kebabs. Bet you wished you’d followed the Adams diet now.
Mile 19 – Only three parks to go. Repeat all that visualisation from earlier.
Mile 23 – You can relax in the knowledge that if I was running this marathon I would have finished by now.
Mile 25 – Seems to take longer to some doesn’t it? Don’t worry. By now I would have completed 2 interviews, had a recovery drink and emailed my result and race report to the Serpies website. I would also have updated facebook to say that I ran in an awesome time without really trying very hard.
Mile 26 – In the olden days you would have reached the finish line by now, but because of some fat lazy King of England in 1908 an extra 385 yards were added to the distance so he did not have to get off his fat arse to cheer the winners of the race. By the time you have thought of all this though you will have run those 385 yards and finished the race.
26.2 – The most important thing to remember here is that you should completely ruin your finisher’s photo by faffing with your Garmin. DO NOT look ahead, smile, wave your arms in the air in victory as this may add 1.3 seconds to your watch time.
So there you have it. How to run an awesome marathon. Hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed being awesome. Remember if everything falls apart then you can always become one of those “it’s the taking part that counts” people.
I made this as a birthday present for a friend and occasional Triathlete a while ago.
Smash It Nutrition Guide
Smash It (TM) the revolutionary new fuel source from that is going to set Heart Rates racing - Like OH MY GOD! Based on some dodgy science, words that mean nothing and then a cavalier use of percentages this superfuel will increase your ability to Smash It by 57%. Guaranteed!![1].
Dual use – Is a source of nutrition AND can wash your clothes
Yes
No
Harnesses the unique power of the potato?
Yes
Don’t Know
Something Else that is ultimately Pointless?
YES
NO
Don't end up like this dick. Choose SMASH IT!
In the beginning..
Based in nature we searched high and low for the worlds fittest hardest and downright coolest animal. We considered the Lion and Tiger, appraised the antelope and probed into the penguin. We tested the Rhino, looked up a Horse, the Giraffe was gay and obviously we didn’t forget the Elephant. But out of the animal testing zoo one animal stood alone.
The Elephant could only look on, wheezing through it’s big long snorkel nose as watched his competitor smashing it through the water with the grace of a dolphin. The Dolphin (who was really shit on the bike) looked in awe as his black and white furry rival peddled with supreme cadence to destroy the otters. The Lion nearly choked on his penguin when the invincible leader asked for the speed to be increased as he smashed it up on the treadmill. And who was this mysterious beast? Why it was the Badger of course. And what is a Badgers favourite food? Well, EVERYBODY KNOWS that….
Testimonies
“I was seriously faltering in the marathon stage. I was so smashed at T2 that I forgot to switch my Garmin from “Bike” to “Run” and my carefully programmed heart rate zones were all over the place, like my own drunken dancing I can vaguely remember from the days when I use to go out with people. One mouthful of Smash It’s creamy white goodness and I was off like a rocket, smashing it through the last 10 miles and Smashed a new PB! (12.43, Swim 1.27, T1 1.16, Bike 7.22, T2 2.32, Run 3.55, AHR 134, HRMax 178)”
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr Smash It!
“I was once a slow fat long distance runner with a succession of crap times and a nauseating need to be the centre of attention. I introduced Smash It into my training programme (after of course I introduced a training programme) and never looked back. I completed my first Ironman as was ranked 17th in my category of Male, 25-34 from the London Borough of Ealing with Athsma). Results like that speak for themselves, now I don’t care about the need for attention, I am AWESOME. GO SMASH IT!!!”
“Got up at 4. Had Smash It at 4.30. Was at the start by 5. Read my blog for the continuation of this epic story”.
AeroBowl
At £249.99 for 87g this piece of kit is officially worth it’s weight in diamond. We would never think to introduce a product unless it gave you the opportunity to spend the huge amounts of money other people usually use for Christmas gifts. The Aerobowl is specifically designed for high speed mashed potato eating. It’s shape accellerates the air around it, creating a vacuum just beneath the bowl and pulling you forward further. And you can eat Smash It from it. For an extra £89.95 you can buy the heating funnel attachment, place it on the front of the bowl and after just 300k of cycling the top of your Smash It mashed potato will be toasted and crispy, just like a shepherds pie.
Coming soon – The Magic Placebo Head Band. A headband that improves your brain thinkability by 88%.
Well obviously it works. Just look at this graph.
SMASH IT for GIRLS
As you know, triathlon was invented in 1983 as a way to get girls into sport. It worked a treat. At Ironman Bolton there were at least 1000 pairs of well shaven smooth legs and pert bottoms lining up at the start. It was a wonderful sight.
Our scienticians have proved that if you wrap the same thing up in pink, add some folic acid and patronise them about their “busy” lives and “unique” nutritional needs then Girls will buy 2.7 times as much of anything. We acted on this research to develop “SMASH IT GIRL”, the lastest Smash It product specifically formulated for your unique nutritional needs and busy lifestyles.
Another innovation in the Smash It range is Smash It On The Go - where we sell much smaller quantities of the same thing for not much discount, allowing the good people at Smash It to develop yet more things for you to buy.
A Girl Now, I know what you are all thinking. It’s every girl’s worst nightmare. “What if you are coming out of a lift and you bump into the man of your dreams he asked to borrow a pen and in haste you reach into your bag and the contents spill everywhere, including your Smash It On The Go sachets? I think a man would be intimidated by the revelation that I use high performance Triathlon Nutrition. He’d probably run away and end up getting off with that fat Sophie from procurement who spent weeks on end banging on and on about a race for life 5k she walked in 57 minutes. Bitch”.
Don’t panic! Step out of Zone 5b and back into 3. We had a genius idea that will solve this problem. We made them look just like tampons! Problem solved. No men ever get intimidated by those things.
“I am a Girl which means I’m never going to understand all this complimacated science stuff, but the little sachets are SOOOO CUTE.” – A Girl
SO what are you waiting for? Get off your arse and go out and SMASH IT!!!![3]
[1] Please contact your club triathlon rep for details of the guarantee
[2] Those damn bureaucrats in Brussels are adamant that the potato is not a fruit or vegetable. This is clearly bollocks and we are going to sue them as soon as we have won the various lawsuits filed against us.
[3] Please consult your training spreadsheet before leaving the house.
In July 1980 (When I was 4 months old, barely able to even run a marathon) James Shapiro set off on a solo run across the USA, starting in Los Angeles as I will and finishing as I will in New York.
His account is quite poetic and he kept a journal with him all the time to capture all of the events and thoughts he enjoyed (and suffered) along his 3100 mile 80 day adventure. The book in another that is difficult to find (and expensive to buy). I thought it was worth the effort though. I can see myself building a library of ultra-running classics.
He did the run as a "Journeyman", meaning self supported rather than being in a race. The majority of the runners who beforehand had completed this run across the continent have done so in an organised race. To this day there have been 240 known foot crossings. Shapiro was the 108th.
This is a very personal first hand account of what it is like to run across America. He was not in a race but was running 45-50 miles a day without rest. Every few pages seemed to jump between what it was like to be running such an epic distance and a feeling of what it is like to be in a particular place in America, usually in the middle of nowhere.
Much of the book focuses on the characters that he met along the way and his straining relationship with friends who come to support him. There is something quite eery about doing a run and joining up so many insular towns and outpost and people who only exist because the roads are so vast. Oddly it would have been easier to do this unsupported in the 20's as there were still plenty of towns and people along the route 66. Now there is not reason to have them more than 200 miles from each other now.
In each town a small soap opera plays out and Shapiro just watches while eating three meals in minutes. He speaks candidly about falling out with the people helping him, as if they are trying to get in the way of his journey.
It paints a picture that runners are not supposed to be there, running on highways like that. He makes himself sound like an alien running where only people protected by juggernauts should enter. Before the days when all crossings are well publicised he just got up and went for it alone.
I like the chapter about him getting his gear put together, the relentless drive to minimise weight by cutting down to the smallest of sleeping bags and taking no luxuries. The disappointment of not getting the sleeping bag to be as small as possible.
One things that jumped out of me from this is that when running from west to east I'll never actually be facing a sunset. The sun will always come up right ahead of me and disappear behind my back.
Another great read to get me more excited about the summer. Despite being surrounded by people all the way in the US I am sure I'll get the same feeling on loneliness as Shapiro did back when I was still an incoherent dribbling defacating mess.
It had not rained in Paris for about a month apparently so it seemed fitting that it should forcast heavy showers when I was racing here. I signed up to do this event quite early on as I really enjoyed it last year and wanted to give it a better go than last time. Last year I had some horrid food poisoning from a now closed down dodgy chicken putrifier in Ealing. I was not in the best of shape but managed to finish the race and enjoy possibly the most spectacular and unique finish of all the races I have done, climbing the Eiffel Tower. Not yet I'm not...
Alas it was not to be this time as I am only 2 weeks on from my surgery and under doctors orders to not run. I have done plenty of walking in the past week and decided to just try to walk as much as I can until I get timed out. I had hoped to downgrade to the 50k so to at least have a chance of finishing something but due to all the races being full. There were nearly 2000 runners in the 80k which would make this the biggest ultra I have done in terms of field. It's not suprising as it is a great race. Here is last years report.
I managed to talk a few more Serpies into doing in this year. We all seemed to find each other at the park where the start was. The race does not start till 12.30 which is great for having a lie in but not so good as it starts when it is quite warm and finishes quite late at night. However finishing up the Eiffel Tower in the dark is pretty awesome. Those expecting a good time headed to the front (as it can get quite congested early on) and I stayed in the middle somewhere with Gemma.
On the signal to go I realised that I was getting in the way immediately. I was intending to walk until I got timed out and really did not want to run but had to to get out of people's way. I was one of those annoying runners who start unrealistically near the front and then block the way for everyone else. I managed to get to the side and start walking again and watched the mass of runners slowly plod ahead. Within half a mile I was pretty much last bar a few people who had gone off to go to the toilet or faff around with kit.
It's quite an odd position, last. It was as if there was a competion for it. This might be the closest I will come to actually ever racing for an extreme position in a race. As I walked along slowly at the back people would look behind then slow down and let me walk past. I am pretty sure they were not the sweepers but just really wanted to be at the back. I carried on with my walking (around 4mph) and was passing a few people who were running. There was a group of about 10 of us who got iscolated at the back while the masses pushed on.
The first cut off for 22k was 3.30 hours. I thought this should be comfortable and was out to enjoy the day except I was soon overtaken by two cyclists who then started to take down the route markings. The whole route is very well marked except it would appear if you are running at cut-off pace. I had to get ahead of those guys at least or I'll get lost so I started a shuffle where I tried not to lift my legs off the ground. It was hard and I could feel the bouncing of my insides but had to keep up. All of a sudden I was involved in a surreal game of pac-man where I'd run past ribbons in trees knowing that these would slow down my pursuers. Fortunately they disappeared soon and I could enjoy my walk.View from Last place
There were lots of different people defending the rear from enemy fire. There were a few of your classic "plodders" who had a laboured run/shuffle and entered knowing that they were going to be pushing the cut-offs. However there were quite a few younger men who seemed to have a normal run gait but were doing it in slow motion. I could not quite understand why they were not going faster or whether they were going slow deliberately. Reminded me of the slow bicycle race we had at school. You had to be a very good cyclist to win this by going as slowly as possible. I got disqualified for taking a tricycle. Should have known even then what the difference between "tri" and "bi" was.
I ended up walking with this little old lady (who was running) and she felt that it should be her task to reassure me that everything was going to be ok. English was not her first language but she said that we have over 3 hours to get to the first checkpoint and that the others had set out too fast and we will catch them. By "others" did she mean everyone else in the entire race apart from us two? Ha ha ha, all those chumps.
Well the race did not go on for much longer for me. I arrived at CP1 (21k) in just over 3 hours and decided to call it a day. My insides were a bit sore and the cuts were rubbing. I'd have liked to leisurely walk about another 13 but the positioning of the checkpoints (the next being 20 miles away) meant that I'd be walking into darkness and would probably take longer to get back to the end. I got on the meat wagon that was just waiting for the final cut-off to take the rest of the runners.
It was not great being on the bus going back to the finish obviously but this was a stark reminder that I am far from "ready" to run again. I basically can not tolerate any vertical bouncing. I read all sorts of stories on the hernia op where I was soley focussed on "how long?" Answers ranged from "I was bed-ridden for 3 months" to "I left hospital within the hour, via bungy jump and then sprinted across town to make it in time for my kick-boxing lesson". Still not panicking. Even if I do very little between now and then I am still confident of making it.
I arrived back at the Eiffel Tower around 5pm and spent the afternoon with Huw Lobb who had come second in the 50k. Almost as soon as I entered the food tent it started to piss it down quite hard. That would have slowed everyone down. I ate lots of food at the buffet at the end (I figured as I have only done one quarter of the race I was entitled to 4 times the food to make it even). The food at the end was great, with all you can eat meats, cheeses, rice, pasta, salads and cake and all you can drink beer and coke. I was going to be pissed by the time the others finished.
I started to stand under the tower just as it was getting dark and some of the leading runners were coming in. It seemed much more spaced out than I imagined with 7.30 on the clock. Gary was the first Serpie home in around 7.45. Rob and Claire (who did not look happy but insisted that was her "happy" face) came in around 8.30. Jen was not much later in just over 9 and I missed Matt and Mark finish. Jen remarked on how her feet felt OK until I sat on one of them with a chair leg. Ouch.
We were still waiting for Natalie and Gemma who were within the last 10k now and on the "easy" bit along the river. Gemma's texts would say she's got X far to go and then later say she had longer to go. She sounded like she was suffering so I went out to try to meet her, just as Natalie came in. After around a mile I saw her coming down one of the ramps onto the river and was hobbling quite badly. She had sore feet and blisters and was moving quite slowly, my leisurly walk seemed like great speed.
It looked touch and go as to whether we'll make it to the end but in the end there was 15 minutes to spare, she got up the tower easy and claimed her finish. Back off to the food tent (my 5th visit I think). It was great to meet Ian Corless who finished in a great sub 9 time too. I went to get Gemma's bag just after the cut-off was reached and saw some runners head up the steps to the base of the Eiffel Tower to see that it was completely closed. The once flashing beacon spreading across the whole of Paris was now almost invisible even stood right next to it. Must have been gutting to go all that way and not even have a finish to go to. Don't know how that compares to getting bounced away at 12.00.01 in Comrades but the tower was closed for business now and it was lights out.
Next year, I'll be ready to give this a good smashing. Third time lucky.
These are the questions and answers to the fetcheveryone.com "Member of the Month" interview I did a few months back. It was just after Badwater. Members are all invited to ask questions, I have annonymised them. At least no one asked "isn't it bad for your knees?"
Q - What is your most sought after pb ever and if you achieve it would you give up running??
Good question. I don’t really have a “pb” in mind in the usual sense ie “X time in some Y fixed distance”. I used to think about 3 hour marathons but got bored of the track work and specific training needed for that (though having said that my current marathon pb of 3.07 came the day after a 24 mile fell race so perhaps 3 hours will just fall out randomly one day). But there is nothing that if i achieved it would stop me running. There is so much earth out there to run and I am not going to have time to do it all in the little time I will have on here.
Q - When you have done the most mentalist race on the planet what do you do next? Besides having a wee shandy or two?
When I first got into this I thought I knew what the most mental race was. I looked up to Badwater like that was the end but soon realised that the world is full of people taking it further. When I did Badwater this year another guy did it back to back SIX times. There is always someone doing something more silly. There are a number of races out there that I still want to do and in some respects might be more mental that Badwater. They are getting invented faster than I can run them. If it happened that I finished the hardest one and there was no step up that would be the time for me to think of my own run.
Q - What would you do if you couldn't run?
I’d become a very convincing Rik Waller Lookalike.
Q - If there was one piece of advice you wish you'd received before you started "going longer", what would it be ? Congrats btw
Probably that I didn’t start soon enough or continue after the first marathon I ran. I did the London Marathon in 2000 and I loved it. I only did it as a joke to amuse some Uni friends. As I lined up at the start line I thought I might die that day. I was so nervous that my nose started to bleed. After about half a mile I had to duck into the toilets to sort it out, I was only there for 5 minutes and when I came out there was no one around. I was officially last in the London Marathon, I was even behind the 2 sweeper lorries clearing the rubbish. Anyhoo, I digress. I absolutely loved the experience but didn’t do another marathon until london again in 2003 and then again in 2004. I wish I had joined a running club straight after that marathon and got into the whole social aspect of running so much sooner and done a lot more races. That was before the internet was so widely available and i thought that “The Marathon” was the only race in the world that existed. On getting into ultras I was very tentative, doing a 45 miler then not doing another for about 4 months. I wish I had just dived right in. I see so many people on Fetch and friends from Serpies just getting straight into the multi-days and longer events and wish I had done sooner. I’m not saying that those wanting to do an ultra should start with a 100, but i would recommend saying “yes” to things more than saying “no”.
Q - So well deserved..congratulations. You have completed so many tough tough races. Have you ever DNF ? If yes...how did it affect you?
I have had a few DNFs in my time, about 5. Most of them were just a case of something hurting and me not wanting to risk it. I don’t worry too much about the DNF aspect like that, I am not too precious about having a DNF free record if it preserves my legs. The one time where it did really hurt (emotionally) to DNF was the Rotherham 50 in Dec 2007. It was my first 50 miler and the biggest run I would have done up to then. I got food poisoning the days before (My own fault from my addiction to filthy chicken places). I went up there with some friends and was really looking forward to the race, despite the grim conditions. Quite early on it was clear that i was not going to finish. I had not eaten for 2 days and I was having to stop lots. I pulled out at 17 miles. I would hardly say this was a dream race for me but I did feel like I had let myself down and was envious of the others who were going on to complete the race. It sucks when you are on the train back home and people are talking about parts of the race that I didn’t even see. I felt that I had to go back and finish. I think the worst thing about it is that at the finish line you feel like a bit of a lemon seeing your friends finish while you are already there and dressed. Then hearing them talk about the race, the bits that were hard, the bits that were amazing and everything you missed. It’s not so much missing out on a medal, some goodies and an official finish time, its more the experience that you missed out on.
More recently I DNF’ed the Highland Fling as both my knees seemed to seize up. Again, it was not a nice feeling but I knew it was the right decision. I meet some crazy ultra-runners who have a determination not to DNF any race ever, even if it kills them. I don’t think this is a wise move. There are times when you need to stop to stop yourself from long term damage. Your pride takes a battering but in the long term its better than your body.
Having said that I’ve never felt like I’ve been beaten by a race. I’ve never DNF’d because I thought the race itself was too hard. That’s one of the reasons I feel like I need to step up. To see whether there is a race out there that will beat me. It’s going to hurt like hell when it happens and will probably screw me up psychologically but I have to try and find it.
Q - Loved the Badwater blog. :) Do you think you'll ever get the same sense of satisfaction from shorter races (you know, anything less than say a marathon)?
I doubt it, I find shorter races hard for a different reason and I don’t like the way I have to burn my lungs to get around. I have made my bed now and it’s incompatible with trying to do justice to shorter races.
Q - What is your worst running experience a) in training, and b) in a race, and did you cry?
I have not had that many bad experiences, I try to take positives from everything. POssibly the worst race experience was the Marathon Des Sables where I was quite ill. I had a chest infection and really should not have started the race but it costs so much money I had to just get it done. There was no rest for the whole week, even when I was in bed I was being choked by the sand blowing into my mouth at night.
The one time I have cried in a race was actually the best running experience ever. It was in the Grand Union Canal Race in 2008. I had got to 100 miles fairly comfortably but was starting to get really tired and hurt. miles 100-120 seemed to take a day and I sat down at 120 miles and was unsure whether I’d get back up again, I was a mess. I decided to get up and was determined to get running again, within a few miles all the pain seemed to go away and then a few mile further I was flying, running like I was running 10k. This lasted for about 10 miles where I suddenly realised that I was definitely going to finish this race and I just had to stop, hold onto some railings and ball my eyes out. It was amazing to think that after 27 hours on my feet I could still run like that. I think about that moment every time something gets hard. It reminds me of how I can break out of hard times and also how I can finish anything.
Q - I've heard it on popular authority that you like to run and you like to drink. If you HAD to give up running OR drinking for life, which one would you choose and why?
Well, I only drink to replace the calories that I burn off running. And I only run to have something to talk about when drinking in the pub. If I was faced with that choice I guess I’d give both up and take up knitting.
Q - If you could run in any country in the world, where would it be and why?
Hmmmmmm. There are a lot of races I want to do in a lot of countries. I have never been to Australia before and there are quite a few there I would like to run .
Q - Will you be doing the Western States at some point?
Yes I hope to and was in the lottery for last year but it’s about a 17 to 1 chance on getting in. Its getting harder and harder to get into the popular events such as WS100, UTMB, Hardrock etc. WS100 is definitely on the list as are many other US races such as Hardrock, Leadville and Barkely.
Q - probably have some goals in mind for next year but in time can you see yourself maybe organising an ultra race of your own and if so do you have something in mind already (without giving too much away of course)?
I would love to organise my own race at some point but I can barely organise myself to run a race on my own. I am always forgetting things like vasaline, water bottles, pants etc that I think if I extended myself to try and organise 100 other people to do a run I might miss something completely, like forgetting to get permission from some guy who’s land we were going to run over or going through a firing rang on a tank combat training day. I do think it’s brilliant that there are so many people organising races thought, it seems that there is a wealth of choice every weekend now. Many Fetchies have put themselves out there and put on a race of their own and i think that’s brilliant. Jen J, Foxy, B-Lass, Els, LIverpool Feet and no doubt some others that I have forgotten. There are loads of others out there too putting on great events. I salute all these people for taking the risk and putting on events for lazy people like me to just turn up and run. I can’t imagine all the stress and not to mention personal financial risk. Over the years I have become a lot more appreciative of these people and try not to vent my spleen if something goes slightly wrong. Without them I would not have nearly as much fun as I do. Having said that I may one day organise a race. And you’ll do it won’t you MS? Probably better check about the tanks on the day though.
Q - what is your fave book and do you keep it in the toilet?
I have just finished reading “Why we run” by Bernd Heinrich and loved it. Its about a runner who decides to get into ultra running with a good marathon background but takes lessons from nature, such as the endurance capabilities of birds who eat once then migrate thousands of miles or even frogs who sing for nights on end. really is worth reading. Other running books I’d recommend are; Born to Run by Christopher McDougal. A brilliant story of some amazing characters in the ultra running world, a Mexican tribe and the idea that running is what humans where always capable of doing and should be now, and all this coming to a head at the Leadville 100 race. Survival Of the Fittest - Similar to the above it chronicles some of the authors endurance events and how humans are built for such things. I particularly like the bit where he suggests that we got an advantage to dealing with the heat better than all other animals due to our ability to sweat. We should be running the Marathon Des Sables every week :) I like all of the above as it suggests that running very long distances in the normal thing to do, and hence I am not such a weirdo. I will also recommend reading the Bunion Derby, an account of the 1928 foot race across America. 3300 miles on dirt track mostly along route 66 from LA to New York. I fantastic account of what people did back then for food, energy, shoes, foot care. Not a garmin or a training spreadsheet between them. And no I don’t read while on the toilet. I need to use both arms to balance so I don't end up falling back and scrapping my backside on the bushes.
Q - Please don't mind for asking this question. How much did it cost you to do Badwater? Congrats....very well deserved.
yes it was rather expensive. I reckon about £3k in total (flights, entry fee, accommodation and food for me and my support team, car hire). I managed to get a crew from out there so there were less costs for transport. If you were to take your own crew out there you’d obviously have to pay for their flights too. Because I was so obsessed with this race for so long it was worth it to me. I will definitely do it again but not very often I don’t think.
Q - You've done so many great races but if you could invent your own where would it be, how long and over what terrain?
Hey Bomb. I’m not sure actually. I quite fancy doing an off-road JOGLE, using some of the UK’s great national trails. I wonder if a race exists where you have to run for as long as possible without stopping or sleeping? That would be pretty cool. Unless it was round a track.
Q - How do you manage to balance life and your extreme running? Or is running your life?
Running is my life :) And the pub of course. Fortunately I don’t have any of those little people to look after so I have my time to myself really. Plus I try to consider running as a means of transport rather than “training”. I live about 9 miles from work which is a good distance to run each day if I am trying to get lots of miles in. It takes an hour on the tube, about an hour and 15 running. So if I did that every day I’d get 90 miles done in just an extra 2 and a half hours :) And I save enough money to eat 60 inches of Subway. If that is not an incentive to run lots I don’t know what is.
Q - mother nature often calls when one is out for a long run. where is your favorite place to shit and why?
Good question. Being out on the trail a lot you certainly do appreciate a good toilet. In a recent marathon I went into a portaloo and found they had quilted toilet paper. I was elated and could have spent all day there stoking my backside. Anyhow, dunno really where my favourite place is. It’s funny how when you first get into this kind of thing you find yourself wandering miles off course to dump cos you are worried about getting found out. Now I’d take a crap on a water station, I don’t care.
Q - Congratulations. Races: First, worst and favourite 3?
I did the London Marathon in 2000 and I loved it. I only did it as a joke to amuse some Uni friends. As I lined up at the start line I thought I might die that day. I was so nervous that my nose started to bleed. After about half a mile I had to duck into the toilets to sort it out, I was only there for 5 minutes and when I came out there was no one around. I was officially last in the London Marathon, I was even behind the 2 sweeper lorries clearing the rubbish.
Worst would have to be the Marathon Des Sables. A combination of horrible illness and a race that is so far up it’s own arse that it made me feel even more sick. But I won’t bore you with the sleepless nights, the 24 hours of queuing and all the fanfare, you can read it all here. Best 3? Interesting. There are so many great races in the UK and the world that I want to do and will never get round to doing all. http://runningandstuff.squarespace.com/blog/2009/7/9/marathon-des-sables-moan-moan-moan-cough-moan-moan-cough-cam.html
I think the Spartathlon wins it. The whole thing is so epically pointless but each year 100s of really hard nutcases decide to do it anyway. It is the only race I know of that has such mistorical significance, tracking the run of phiddipides from Athens to Sparta as he tries (and fails) to summon an army. The organisation is brilliant, pure running enthusiasts and not an ego among any of them. http://runningandstuff.squarespace.com/blog/2010/9/28/spartathlon-2010.html
The GUCR would not be far behind. If I were born in some other country I am pretty sure I would have never heard of this race. I will always have very fond memories of when I went from a 50 mile ultrarunner to an all day and all night and all of the next day ultrarunner. It was magical and it went so well. The whole event is everything that is great about this sport. http://runningandstuff.squarespace.com/blog/2008/6/23/grand-union-canal-race-report-long-version.html
Hmmmm, a third race? Probably Davos, just because it’s so well organised, there is something for everyone which means that a good selection of my friends come along rather than the usual ultra people who I probably spend far too much time with already.
Q - i'm heading to LA area next yr, what Ultra should i do? sensible suggestion if you dont mind! ps, welld done, bloody well deserved
Q - Huge congratulations, really well deserved! Was Badwater the Holy Grail you thought it would be? And if so, how do you look to future races after such a massive achievement? That was two questions wasn't it.....? Now I've made it three... *gets coat*
Badwater was the holy grail when I decided to run longer than the marathon. By then I had only heard of a few ultra races such as comrades, Marathon Des Sables and London to Brighton. Badwater just seemed to blow these out of the water. That one event sucked me into this world and the further I delved the more and more I found out about other events. Badwater was the holy grail I expected but at the same time when I vowed to finish this many years ago I thought I was just going to finish a race, what I actually got involved with was a complete change of lifestyle and perspective. It is no longer about 1 thing that I must finish and then that is the end. Having met some people who have done some crazy things I know that whatever I do there is someone out there doing twice as much.
Q - What one piece of advice would you give you some whack job who's considering running Badwater 135?
Get saving now.
Q - I think your article Ultra Running Tips - Mental Stuff http://www.fetcheveryone.com/article-view.php?id=343 is worth a MotM in itself! Why longer? Why not sub 3? Or is that coming? Congratulations again! :-)G
I think I’ve answered in an above question that I am not aiming for a sub 3 as such but am pretty sure it will just appear one day. Glad you like the article. I need to update that with some more stuff I have learned in the past 12 months about how do deal with things. AN update is coming soon..
Q - Have you ever considered asking for sponsorship from your favourite food purveyors? I am sure Subway, McDonalds and Prigles would be proud to support a fine figure of an ultra runner such as yourself. And imagine all the free food. Who would you approach first?
I asked Ealing Kebab if I could have free chips with my Chicken Doner if I ran around the town with their name on my T-Shirt but they declined. I think I would approach Subway first as I do like a nice 12 inches when out on a long run. When I was training for the Spartathlon last year I did about 15 30+ mile runs in a month and lots of them I would stop in McDonalds and get a meal. Milkshake, salty carbohydrates and a toilet. What more would I want?
Q - Who is your favourite runner and why?
Hey Docter K. I supposed I have to say the OH, otherwise my laundry and lifts to races are in jeopardy.
Yiannis Kourous is a legend. Holds every world record from 100 miles to 1000 and every record over 24 hours. http://www.yianniskouros.com/ But if it was not her I have a list of possible contenders. Scott Jurek I think is amazing. Such a nice guy but capable of such incredible things (winning Badwater, Spartathlon, Western States several times). Seemed to go into hiding as soon as he was revered as the best ultra-runner in the world. He waits at the finish line for all the other finishers in any race he does (which for him is usually a long wait). http://www.scottjurek.com/#/home/ Killian Jornet is a very young Spanish guy who is doing unbelievable things up and down mountains. Broke the UTMB record comfortably and seems to be able to run vertically. http://www.kilianjornet.cat/
I recommend reading the Bunion Derby for some great characters who ran the first organised trans USA run in 1928. Obviously Phiddipides who inspired the greatest race I have done and he did it without road shoes, a torch or even a garmin. I can just imagine him 2500 years ago. You must run to Sparta and summon an army. No wait a sec, I still have not got a signal. I need to know what pace I am doing as I run.
Q Fully deserved. Awesome race history. How many pairs of running shoes do you get through in a typical year?
I really can’t remember but every pair I get rid of I melt down and make a bit of path with it. Within a few years I should be able to run a marathon on it.
Q - How do you cope with those moments in ultras when you think, holy shit, I've already run two marathons back to back and I've got another three to go? And when are you publishing your collected works of blogs?
In the Spartathlon I had run one marathon by the time I’d usually be at work. Two by the time I’d eating lunch and thinking to myself “isn’t this much better than sitting in an office?” I was struggling then after 50 miles but the next 3 were a dream, I just felt like a sailed through them. It does not happen in every race but I know that no matter how crap I am feeling it’s probably going to get better later on. I hope to publish something to do with running and my blogs. It seems crazy how I was pooing myself about running 45 miles in one go 4 years ago and now I propose to run 45 miles a day for 70 days and am not (yet) concerned that it might break me into pieces. I’ve come a long way since I used to be scared of marathons. I might write it even if it did not get published but am struggling for a title. something like “Ultra Running for fat b******s?
Q - What amazing, insane thing are you going to do next?
Hi Dave. I’ve just signed up for the LA to New York race which is 3220 miles in 70 days. It seems pretty insane now. I remember crapping myself at the thought of running 45 miles in one go just once but now it seems sensible to do that 70 days in a row. Actually no it does not seem sensible.
Q - Congratulations, and well-deserved with all you've achieved in the field of extreme running this year. I seem to recall that about a year ago, inspired by some of the leading ultra-runners, you experimented with veganism. How long did the experiment last and what were your conclusions?
Hi Vrap. Yes that was a strange time for me. I was inspired by Scott Jurek and his vegan diet and thought I might try it AND do lots of heavy training. It did not really work for me as I think you need to be quite knowledgeable and passionate about food (which I am emphatically not) though I did learn a lot and never knew that chickpeas and falafel we so nice :) I am sure it is possible to run on a vegetarian/vegan diet. Scott does and I know a couple of people who even do the raw vegan diet and run ultras. Not for me though. I like Big macs too much.
Q - Fantastic achievement mate I mean Badwater :) of course and well deserved MotM. How do you train for your 'mental' endurance or is it natural ;)
I think mental endurance is natural in everyone. There is more and more evidence to say that we ran ran and covered long distances for thousands of years and hence we have some natural ability to deal with it. No one ever asks you “why do you like sex?” or “why are you so emotionally attached to your children?” because it’s taken for granted that these things are normal and natural as they have been essential for our survival and we have evolved as such. There is a lot of evidence today that we have always had to run and run a long way hence those who get pleasure from running would have been selected by evolution and those are the people who are around today. Probably not explained that well but I suggest reading “Why We Run” by Bernd Heinrich, Survival of the Fittest or Born to Run. In terms of training for it I certainly think it improves with experience. When I first started I would get stressed out about a lot of things. I remember my first ultra and I had just joined fetch and I was asking all sorts of questions like how does wind speed affect a long run and a lot of questions about shoes that would make Hellen laugh quite a lot. Nowadays I am so much more relaxed about all that but I like to giggle at those who ask the same questions I did when I started. I probably should ask more questions though cos I still screw everything up quite a lot. “Speed is sex, distance is love” - David Blaike
Q - About time as well young man. Now the main event, which one Spartathlon or Badwater? Choose wisely:)
You know I’m not answering that one *coughcoughspartathloncoughsplutter*
Q - Now you've done the race that kept you going as a target for so long, can you be arsed any more? What's your motivation now? (in a non-luvvy way)
Yes Badwater was always the target but along the way I found out some really good races that I think are more special such as the GUCR and Spartathlon. I can see myself racing the spartathlon every year for as long as I or the race lives, it’s such an amazing event and I think will be the main event for me for years to come. But nowadays I am mostly motivated by the LA to New York Race.
Q - Extremely well-deserved on many levels. Do you really have to be mental,or does it just help a little?
I don’t think I am mental. I think I am normal and everyone else is mental J I mean what kind of mentalist would smash himself over 5-42k of tarmac and then mope around for ages if it took him longer than he expected? Far more sensible to relax and just take your time strolling over 100 miles and ending up in a completely different place to where you started? Right?
Q - How did you get into first get into running Ultras? and Why?
A - I think it was a case of just getting bored with the formulaic road marathon training. I did the whole following a spreadsheet thing and got a marathon PB (3.12 from 3.34) at the end and did not really get so much satisfaction out of it, I felt like the victory belonged to the guy who made up this spreadsheet rather than myself, I was just the dog that did what he was told. I never thought when I entered my first ultra (tring to town 45 miles jan 2007) just how much they would take over. Now I can’t get enough of them. /blog/2007/2/3/tring2town.html
I like it when people tell me that things are much simpler than others make out. I liked this book immediately, every page seemed to just say cut out the complexities of what you have done before and keep it really simple.
There are may great books out there suggesting that we are "Born to Run". Meaning that running is something that we have evolved to do (and evolved out of doing - having read a lot of Dawkins I know that my use of the word "evolve" is pretty sloppy here). Some of my favourites; Survival of the Fittest demonstrates humans ability to endure physical activity such as running long distance especially in the heat. Why We Run is my favourite and shows how Humans really are endurance kings in the animal world and the famous Born to Run further shouts that running is natural and that our feet are marvels of biological engineering that allow us to do this.
This goes one stage further (I think) and suggests that running is an innate ability in humans and hence we learn to do it naturally. When we are kids we don't get the set squares and protractors out to be told how to run efficiently, we just do.
There are a lot of good things I have taken from this book so far. Simply put the key to developing a good running technique are;
Run lots
Run fast sometimes
Run when fatigued sometimes
Well if we are "born to run" then how come we all get injured? There are two main reasons suggested;
Nowadays we run in big "supportive" shoes that force us to heel strike and cause injury
Nowadays we all sit on our arses a lot more, causing tightness in our hips/core and that leads to other injuries when we run
So he adds 2 footnotes which are;
Wear the smallest heeled shoes that you are comfortable in - ie don't go barefoot if it feels bad
Look after your hips with stretching/yoga etc
Running is a neuro-muscular exercise and the more of it you do the better you'll get. I get told quite a bit about "junk" miles but from my point of view if I like running and can use it to get from A to B then no miles are junk at all. High mileage is the biggest predictor of race performance.
Running fast (sometimes) forces you to run efficiently as there is no other way.
Running when fatigued is something I am familiar with and
The shoes one is an interesting debate, the minimalist movement is gaining ground and now all major shoes manufacturers are offering a "minimal" trainer (at far from minimal price I have noticed).
There were a lot of other gems in this and would definitely suggest reading it. It's funny because his previous book "Brain training for runners" finished off with the usual appendices of training plans for you to stick to. This time he suggests you wing it a lot more. So for example if you are supposed to be doing a hard run but don't feel like it's working then you can ease back and call it a recovery run. Vice versa if you are running easy and feel like smashing it then you should go for it, so long as you get a good combination of speed/recovery/long/hill etc runs in.
Great stuff about the finish line mentality and how records are broken.
Anyway, a great read and quite refreshing that is does not prescribe to tell oyu exactly what you should do and how far you should run every day to achieve your race goals.
Not that I condone proper "training" or anything like that :)
I heard about this book a year ago. It’s an easy one to miss as it’s so rare but anyone wanting to read the history of ultra-running up until 1980 should seek this gem. I got it as a birthday present (a second hand copy in good condition cost around £100) and read it in one sitting.
It starts with the American author tackling a 24 hour track race in Crystal Palace. He talks of being in good enough form to have a go at the World 24 hour record which stood at 161 miles and paints a strangely compelling picture about track ultras. I always wanted to do one some day for the experience and a different kind of race. I know a lot of people say “never in a million years” to this kind of thing but it has always appealed and the atmosphere Shapiro creates when describing his experience is very tempting.
To be in a race knowing exactly where you are compared to others and how much you are gaining or losing on them sounds overwhelming. Even back then before garmins would spout out your pace and heart rates there was a wealth of information about your time/pace and position. The race started at 3pm and went on into the night (where the announcements went silent to not disturb the locals) and then on through the next day.
Most of the book is not about Shapiro’s experience but of him tracking down some of the historical figures of ultra-running and talking to them about their experiences. Remember this is before the days of some of the “classic” ultra-marathons. Before the Spartathlon or Badwater or the MDS existed. The Western States 100 was only just gathering momentum. 100 mile races tended to be the 100 mile points of 24 hour races since it as difficult to measure 100 miles otherwise. It was before some of the more modern household names had got into this kind of stuff such as Yiannis Kouros and Scott Jurek.
The book is rich in stories of races and runner of years gone by.
From where competitve ultra-running started in the UK in 1810 with the "wobbles", 6 day events around tracks that draw in huge gambling crowds and hence large prize pots. These were walking races until a chap called Charles Rowell decided to run sections. Rowells records were impressive; in 1882 his recrods were 13.26 for 100 miles, 35.09 for 200, 150 miles in 24h, 258 in 48 and 353 in 72. These were popular for the whole century and the Victorian working class would often go to the tracks after a hard days work and watch their runner press on. Such endurance feats spread to the US but there is was more walking/running from city to city.
A great interview with Peter Gavuzzi on his racing across the US in 1928 and 1929 brings new light to the books I have already read on the subject and probably inspired him to make hs own US crossing a few tears later in Meditations from the Breakdown Lane (My next book to read).
The best parts I think are the focus on the 2 big races that helped make ultra-running what it is today. The story of Comrades, particularly the early years when Arthur Newton was breaking new ground in endurance is fascinating. Arthur Newton wrote lots of books on the subject of running in the 20s and 30s and even though he only took running up at a later age he managed to win comrades 4 times and was winning the 1928 bunion derby until injury struck.
London to Brighton is one of a lot of discontinued UK ultras that are mentioned (London-Bath, Plymouth-Exeter, Woodford-Southend, Epsom 40). The chapter is a detailed report of an epic race between Don Ritchie and Cavin Woodward, two of the greatest distance runners of the day. Ritchie was famous for going out hard in every event no matter what the distance and had an incredible talent for keeping that pace. Woodward and Ritchie had spent the previous years trading world records with each other for the 50 and 100 mile distances and the race between them in the 1978 London to Brighton did not disappoint.
I love this book and it is a great history of ultra-running up until 1980. It certainly paints a different picture to how it was in the UK back then, although ultra-running has always been a very inclusive sport for people of all abilities and backgrounds it seemed to be more serious at the sharp end back in the 70s. Though I love the UK scene now and my position in the middle of the pack there does seem to be a lack of these types of really hardcore ultra road runners who could entertain crowds with hard racing over 40+ miles. Much as I like to plod along canals I admit that there is little in it from a spectator point of view but I can imagine more interest in seeing 2 or more mentalists trying to smash each other at 10 miles an hour along undulating roads. Perhaps we need to bring London to Brighton back?
It's also full of great pictures going back years.
Anyhoo, it is a great book and provides a great history of the sport until 1980. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Ultra-running. Let me know if you want to borrow the book, I might lend it to you. You'll have to wear gloves though.
It is not pain I feel but sinking
My involvement with the world grows dimmer
It occurs to me that it would be nice to keel over
A barely audible whisper says it would be a way out
Today I had the operation. It was a success as far as I know so far and am quite happy. As I write this I am in no pain as such but am pretty tired even though I have spent most of the day with my eyes closed.
Obviously I have to blog about it..
It started well. I was offered a newspaper to read while I was waiting for the surgeon and was given a choice between the Indy and the Daily Mail. Probably just as well I was given the Independent, otherwise I would have probably read that my hernia was caused by Eastern European gypsies or an EU directive on the use of the metric system.
It was a much different experience to the NHS hospital I went to 8 years ago for the same thing. I was there being operated on within a month of finding the problem rather than 6 and my room was more like a confortable hotel stay with Sky TV, ensuite bathroom and food and drink at the touch of a button. I had not been able to eat since the previous day nor drink from 10am and I was getting quite hungry. Having arrived at 10 and filled in some forms top say that I am not allergic to anything and that I have no history of falling over (that's a lie obviously).
The few hours wait were punctuated by visits from various nice people. A lady came to give me the clothes I need for the OP including a lovely pair of mesh underpants. Another came in to take an order for my food. The Surgeon came in to draw on me to make sure he would operate on the correct side and the anaesthetist came in to talk to me more about allergies. A Nurse came to take some of my stats, my heart rate (55 at the time), and my blood pressure which was something like 135/70. The temperature of my left ear was 36 degrees.
I also got a visit from a physio who told me not to do much exercise for 4-6 weeks (others have told me 2-4 weeks and others have told me 1 week). He told me to do yoga or pilates to strengthen my abdominal muscles generally and gave me a leaflet on how to get in and out of bed. I had so many visitors it was great.
At around 2 I got pushed on the bed into the theatre where the anaesthetist started to chat to me about running. She was reading "Born to Run" and had heard about ultra-running. She said she had done a half marathon before and would never do it again. I tried to convince her otherwise but was not doing a great job of it as she had just injected me with morphine and I was high as a kite. I glanced around at all the kit giving me live readings of my heart rate and was imagining what it would be like to be a triathlete. Within seconds I was asleep.
It took a long time to wake up. I was lying there listening to voices and aware that I was awake and where I was but I just could not open my eyes. Soon I was passing in and out of sleep as the anaesthetic (or exposure to tri-stats) wore off. It was around 4pm, I'd been out for about an hour and a half. I was soon wheeled back to my comfy room where Gemma was there and arrived just in time to watch the Man U vs Arsenal FA game. I had a sandwich and a coffee on the way too, it was perfect.
I didn't really feel much pain while sat still but moving can be sore. It's more a paranoia that my insides are going to explode if I move too suddenly. I've been told that I can just take normal ibropufen and paracetemol to ease the pain. The Surgeon came back in to inform he that the operation was a complete success and then handed me a piece of paper. I thought it was going to be a certificate for being really brave but in fact it was 6 photos of my opened up groin. To be honest it could have been anyones innards. I can not say with any confidence "THAT'S MY SMALL INTESTINE". Still, makes a nice memento given that I had nothing removed that I could keep pickled in a jar.
He said I should lay off for a while and certainly not do any "fast" running for a few weeks. Phew. I never did any of that anyway.
It’s too easy to sign up for races based on the one dimension of distance from start to finish. That’s usually what I do anyway and leave the second dimension of ascent as something to think about when I am there. So when I signed up for the Trans Gran Canaria race many months ago, excited by the stunning views promised, the warm and some birthday beers at the end I just thought “well, 123k isn’t even 3 marathons is it? Should be no bother”.
The closer the race came the more I came to realise that this was not the case. The winning times are over 13 hours, the cut off is 30 hours. Why would it take nearly a day and a half to run three marathons? My quick glance at the profile of the course did not raise any alarms either. From sea level it goes generally up for the first 2 marathons up to only around 2000m and then the last marathon is down. Does not sound much worse than a single climb of the UTMB. However I had overlooked the total elevation that was clear on the website, 8400m. That was almost the entire UTMB (9500m) of elevation in a much shorter distance, 17k, almost a half marathon again purely up and down, like going up and down Everest. And I have not climbed a hill since August. It looks quite hilly, it was actually hillier than that.
It was approaching midnight, we were in Playa Inglise on the south of the island enjoying some of the local entertainment outside the street bars. On a stage we were treated to a rendition of “In the Navy” followed by some comically stereotypical Spanish guitar playing (with sombreros). I almost expected Manuel to stagger through the tables and chairs and throw Paella at some large woman shaking maracas.
Half of the audience were just enjoying a Friday night on their holiday, the other half were loitering, faffing around with kit, lubricating themselves and scanning for toilets. I sp[otted Mark Collinson who I have chatted to at a few races recently when he got off one of the coaches. We were all really excited about this.
On the stroke of midnight we all squeezed through a narrow archway and onto the beach where we had to run 5k to the next town. Again I had no idea about this bit and looked unprepared as most of the other runners had duct taped bin bags to their feet to protect their feet from the sand. I remember how badly blistered my feet got in the MDS and worried that I had to start of with this.
The beach section was actually very pleasant. The noise of the start died down and the waves crashing against the sand were very soothing. Jen and Jany sang “Happy Birthday” as we ran quite quickly over fairly flat sand. Every now and then a big wave would creep towards us and everyone would swing to the left avoiding the water like squealing little children. No one wants to get sand or water in their shoes at such an early stage.
After 5k we reach Maspalomas and take a right and head into the mainland. There are some people cheering us already as we enjoyed a few kilometres along some tarmac and then into a dry canal. This was a bit odd, a dried river/canal bed which was really hard to run on in the dark and only the glowing of dim head-torches to help guide us from spraining ankles.
Thankfully we were out of this soon and onto a wide track where the runners started to space out. The long slow uphill had stared and the dreaded walking poles came out. The path was wide enough for this not to matter and I got into a good rhythm of powerwalking up the hills and running any downs and flats. Occasionally I saw an ambulance race up or down the path with sirens blazing. Some people had run into trouble early.
Around 20k I started to regret not making the most of the toilets at the start and as we were running along a valley that had us flanked by a wall and a cliff there was nowhere to go. After a while of uncomfortable shuffling I finally found a great spot only to discover that there was already a guy there with his dog. He was the one going not the dog. I just pitched up a few yards away and did the same. It felt better, there is always the great feeling after relieving yourself on a run such that you are almost strutting the next few miles. I like that, I’m going to chase that feeling.
What on earth must the dog have felt like? The chap ran on ahead and his dog was obediently following except to take many detours to smell bushes (adding distance, don't think he was wearing a garmin collar). He could not have any idea about what he (I am assuming it was a he, I did not get that close) was setting out to do. Perhaps that helps. Idea for a race – keep the race distance a secret (say anywhere between 100 meters and 100 miles) and tell people to bring as much or as little with them.
The first 30k were quite easy and I covered them is around 3.40. The first checkpoint was merely a lorry full of water to re-fill on. I only spent a minute there before heading on up some more hills and onto the proper hardcore part of the race.
There were very few non-Spanish in the race I found. There were about half a dozen Brits, a few Germans and Italians (did not see any French people though the usual winner is French). This race seems quite a well kept secret for them.
Around 4am it started to piss it down. I seemed to bring bad weather to the MDS and UTMB in recent years and though I was expecting a little rain in this one I thought at least it was going to be warm and the rain might be a blessing, however as we climbed I felt the cold a lot, despite 3 layers. The terrain did not help either, it reminded me of Bovine in the UTMB where I just seemed unable to get up the mountain. It was very rocky and on trying to stagger over the rocks I would often lose my balance and slip back down.
Even though I was struggling I thought about Jen and how she was doing since she really was not wearing much for this race, just a short sleeved top on. I wasn’t sure whether she was ahead or behind me as I last saw her about 5k but I figured if I was cold and I had an extra layer (not including significantly higher body fat) then she must be freezing. Afterwards she said that a kind runner lent her a rain jacket which probably stopped her from freezing on those mountains.
It took a long time to get to the top of that climb and it was impossible to tell whether I was at the top since it was dark. Shortly after the peak there was a steep decent that was to be a characteristic of the entire day, down through a small village and into the first “proper” checkpoint at 42k. It was gone 6am, those last 12k took nearly 2.30 hours.
The checkpoints have a UTMB feel to them, there is Pepsi, meat, cheese, bread and all sorts of hot food in a large medical style tent. It was still raining and still dark and the canvas beds in the medical tent did look tempting but I decided to try and spend as little time as possible at the CP’s. I just went indoors to re-fill my water, grab some chocolate and then head on out. 1 marathon done, 6 hours.
The rain stopped as day broke and I was climbing up some steep but technically less demanding inclines. As the sun rose I could see around the amazing views and the great path I was climbing, it was like a great paved street moving upwards, surrounded by a small wall.
I have recently bought a sports cam with the intention of taking footage of races like this where words can’t describe what I see or when I forget stuff which is more likely. I have attached a few videos here and I hope they show some of the beauty of the race as well as some sound of me sounding knackered. I am quite impressed with the camera so far though not so much with my own camerawork or my inane drivel as I try to think of something interesting to say while beasting myself up a hill.
Shortly after daybreak the two routes split, there are the yellow bibbed runners doing a simple south to north run of 96k and us green bibbed runners who do this plus an extra loop of 27k in the middle of the island where it is hilliest. The start of this loop was quite high already and took us winding around the top of a ridge where I was treated to the spectacular sight of pine trees growing on harsh volcanic rock. In the middle of the island you could easily see for miles and pick out the paths carved into the sides of the volcanoes where perhaps we were about to run (or had already run, I had no idea).
Around 50k and there was the first proper steep and technical drop which I took to with my usual grace and dignity. I am really really bad at this and at times would not even move forward. This is where races like this are won and lost. Although I never expect to win such a thing I know that the fast guys make very quick time racing down the hills with seeming little regard for their own safety and a complete denial of gravity. I imagine that the elites always make sure that each step propels them forward (sound obvious) so that no foot strike is wasted. However I seem to move sideways as much as I move down and hence will probably take 3-4 times as long on this kind of stuff than those guys. My downhill goes something like forward-forward-side-forward-side forward-forward-forward-side-side-forward-side. I put a lot of effort into not actually moving anywhere.
Finally at the bottom there are some flat bits across dams. There was an odd section across a sewage pipe. There were some great views here, I was in the middle of the island with only mountains to look at. It was wonderful looking up for a change.
Around 9am I was doing up my shoe laces as Jany skipped past me. Again I was not sure whether she was ahead or behind but it was great to see her and she explained how she managed to go the wrong way at the split point and follow the yellow bibbed people. She was on much better form than I was at the time and is a much better hill climber than me and I was determined to stick with her for the ups that we were about to undertake.
It was not even 10am and the cold I had been suffering from during the night was quickly replaced by sudden feelings of overburning. It would turn around quite quickly, when the sun was out I was too hot, when it went behind a cloud I got cold. The higher we went the colder and windier it was though the work rate made me very hot. My body just flicked between feverish hot and chills. Jany seemed fine with it and was chatting away as I tried to get my mass up the verticals.
The section between 42-63k was really quite nice and good time can be made on it. Plenty of gentle downs and though the ups are steep there is not too much technical about them. Jany was convinced that we had not even passed the 42k point when we met but I was sure that the checkpoint was the 42k and we were well past it. In fact we were both surprised to hear that the next checkpoint we arrived at was 63k, more than half way. The checkpoint was just another water lorry and we did not stay there long but we were both quite pleased with the progress, around half done in about 10 hours. Just another 20k of the ups and then according to the profile we had a nice easy downhill marathon.
Feeling pretty good about the time we were making we jogged on and into more climbs. Though we had done lots of ups and downs thus far I knew we had not done anywhere near the 8400m we had paid for and so expected this section to be pretty brutal. It did not disappoint.
We marched up and down the same kind of terrain for a couple of hours, enjoying the views and Jany suffering my brief interviews on the camera. I don’t think we said that we would stick together but it seemed that we were going to run near each other until this whole thing was over. Extrapolating as a runner always does we thought this would be around 20 hours, less if that downhill marathon was really easy. This all seemed very well until we got to another checkpoint about 2 hours after we left the 63k point and were told that it was 69k.
6k in 2 hours? The maths is quite frightening. We weren’t even going slow. We thought there must be some mistake as it is incomprehensible to move that slowly. There sure was a lot of climbing it that 6k but not that much? I had a quick snack at the 69k point and pressed on, convinced that we would reach the 82k stage in not much time at all.
On leaving the checkpoint a lady there told us that it would start “going up” now. I don’t know how she would describe what we had been doing for the last 40k. She was right though, this is where the “up” really started.
Some of the inclines were 45 degrees as the sun played peekaboo behind the clouds, tormenting us with hot and cold. We were exposed to the fantastic and bizarre rock formations that make this island look so amazing. Higher up and in the middle of the island the vegetation becomes more baren and the rocks are harder. After another 2 hours of climbing up and down we ran into a few tourists as we were approaching Roque Nublo, a natural symbol of the island. It is basically an 80m tall lump of rock right on to of an already significant hill. Stood just in front is a chap with a chip mat that we have to run through. I was optimistic thinking that this was the 82k point and that the 69k quoted earlier was way off (By the way niether of us had Garmins, they spoil the exitement). He said that this was not the major checkpoint and that we just head over the next mountain, up and down into the next CP and it was about 8k away. Bouldering
So by my reckoning that was about 5k in 2 hours. Shit. This was not going to be finished in the daylight for sure. Then it got really silly.
On the climb of "the next mountain" I tried to picture us reaching the top and being able to say that this was the end of the hardcore climbs. This one was not too bad. Steep and long like most of them but on fairly even trail. On reaching the top there was a long gentle downhill, a road crossing and then back up again? On reaching the second peak (which was harder, it was slippy) I looked around and thought that there is nowhere higher than where we are and so could not possibly have any more but then we went down at up again. SIX times in total and one of those being climbing on boulders with climbing ropes.
This race would obviously compare well with the UTMB. It's 43k shorter but packs in more climb per mile. I would say the terrain is a little more technical here and the support is the same. There is much less crowding here too and the weather conditions would be similar. However I think the key difference and the root of much of the torment and frustration here is that you never know when you are at the top of something. The individual climbs in the UTMB are bigger but at least when you get to the top of one you know you are at the top and have ticked off one of the eight big climbs. Here there is no knowing how much further you have to go up. The Dome of the "next" checkpoint
SO on the 6th climb (a very steep one on a pine trail) I saw at the top a dome and could hear a road and the occasional beep of a chip mat. Fantastic, it looked like it was the highest point we were going to go and after about another 2 hours we thought we were making great time to get there. We reached the top of the climb went over a railing onto the road to see the chap there with a lorry and a timing mat. "Where is the checkpoint?" I breathlessly asked. "About 3k down there" he pointed.
Very steep down. Jany was soon an ant.FFS
At least it was "all down". Very steep in some places. It was a still beautiful and it was around 3pm when the sun should be fairly strong but on getting finally to the 82k checkpoint it was actually quite chilly. It was exposed on the side of a ridge and despite blazing sunshine it was still cold.
Matt had come to meet Jany and this was the point where you can leave a frop bag. Seems silly to leave it so late into the race given that down was the "easy" bit, a downhill marathon. I did not have much in my bag, just a replacement for the nuts and sweets that were still in my rucksack uneaten. Jany looked like she was suffering a little and we stayed at the CP for about 15 minutes where I had some nice pasta and ate some of the greasy meat on offer. You think eating from a bowl of nuts in a bar is hazardous to your health you should avoid eating meat and cheese from a plate 80k and 17 hours into an ultra.
Jany wrapped up in all her layers and we started the nice shallow descent along a great path, the first nice bit of running we got to do for a while. It go warmer and I got thirstier for a post race beer and thought I was within grapsing distance of it now. Today was my birthday and I thought what better way to spend it than running a race then drinking. I was hoping to have at least a few hours of beer time at the end before midnight. With 8 hours do do the last marathon this seemed quite likely.
Not long though I was part of a conversation I thought I'd never have. Jany was lagging behind a bit and I was suprised by this until she just yelled "My uterus is about to fall out". I really didn't know what to say. My initial reaction (in my head) was that there was space in my rucksack if she needed it. I had no idea what to do here, why do girls have to be so complicated? Matt rescued her with some things to help with her "women's troubles", not sure what it was, looked like a lip balm. Pretty soon she was right back on form, bounding up and down with a smile on her face. Would have made a great TV commercial.
Actually Jany was doing phenomenally well given that Easyjet did not put her luggage on the plane. Whereas the rest of us spent the Friday lounging around and sleeping in preparation for a midnight start Jany was filling in forms at the airport to get her suitcase and then had to sort all her stuff out, getting little rest. I had never done a midnight start before and it's hard to know what to do in terms of rest in the days before. Jen was trying to get up earlier and earlier each day and try to force some sort of jet lag on herself. I got up around 9am on the friday, had a big breakfast, faffed around for a bit and had a big lunch and a couple of beers and then snoozed again between 3 and 7. I was at the start line feeling quite fresh and at no point in the race did I feel sleepy.
It was getting cooler and there were still a large number of hills to climb. Nothing as bad as the middle third of the race but now the terrain was getting earthier and muddier. The downhills were steep switchbacks on slippy soil and there was no way of getting any proper momentumn. Even if I was in the mood for racing down hill the amount of turning back on yourself made it very hard. As with all downhills Jany was much faster at them and within minutes she'd look like an ant and then disappear. Even though we were going down a lot we were not making up much time.
The 100k checkpoint is annoyingly the 99k checkpoint. It's in a small town and we got there around 7pm giving us 5 hours to get the rest done in under 24. The race cut off is 30 hours but I didn't fancy another section in the dark. It would be nice to finish, go to bed and have a fairly normal day tomorrow of lounging on the beach and eating squid. We heard here that Jen had been pulled out of the race at 82k for having a blue face. It was a great shame as it wasn't going to get any colder from here as we were heading down but she wished us good luck with the "downhill" marathon and said to meet us at the end.
About 100 out of 300 starters pulled out (or were pulled out by the organisers). It's easy to see why with the weather so variable and the terrain so hard. Last year's winning time was just over 13 hours, amazing in this. This year it was a bit more than that which I think refected the less than ideal weather we had. We didn't stay at the 99k checkpoint for long. This was where Gemma's 24k race started and she did that in about 2.40. We had about twice that long and it was probably going to take that long as it was getting dark. We set out and unsuprisingly we started off by going up a hill. Some "nice" trail
The sun disappears suddenly as we were covered in forests but the long uphill was at least level so we got a great powerwalk going. Then it was pitch black as we ran over some muddy sections which were generally down or flat. Jany and I took tunrs to run in front and made sure we were both looking out for the ribbons. arrows and reflectors that marked the route. The route markings were actually very good, there was something every few yards it seemed and it would have been hard to get lost though I am sure some of my London based running friends could manage it somehow. Having spent the last 10 hours getting gradually overtaken by other runners on the ups and downs (remember they were cheating with sticks) we managed to overtake a load of people here, about 20. It was dark and everyone was walking but Jany and I were running quite strong. The finish will come in no time. 99k Checkpoint. 7PM
Nope. After about 10k of making good progress in the mud and watching Jany nearly run into a goat we entered a dry river bed full of rocks. Actually it was not dry as it had started pissing it down again and we were sliding all over the place and had to slow to a walk and stagger. It was dark and we could not really see much around us except the walls of what once could have been a river. This is probably not the most scenic part of the race and there was a feeling of being trapped.
The path went on and on as we slowly staggered forward, kicking rocks and feeling the occasional sharp one go into my blistered feet. Jany and I had done well to stay in good spirits throughout the race but we both fell silent in this stage, this was no fun at all. Switchback after switchback meant that we had no idea how far we had to go or had travelled. Jany fell a few times. The rain came down harder and threatened to make this a river again. Gemma texted me to say that Marky had finished and was currently wrapped up warm in my clothes. For the first time I was just wishing this whole thing was over and wanted to be wrapped up in my warm clothes.
Every now and then there were some lights up ahead and I said that it could be a checkpoint, surely there must be one soon that marks the 10k to go point. It never was, the light would just be a house or a farmhuose or something. I thought this would be how it as for the rest of the race and that it would take till 30 hours to complete. I told Jany that if we are not at the next CP by 9.30 we can kiss goodbye to 24 hours. Paranoia hits you like that when you feel you have such a long way to go and don't appear to be making any progress. You start thinking and seeing things that not there and thinking up problems that don't exist. I thought my uterus was going to fall out.
Gemma texted me to say that the last 10k were mostly on tarmac and lots of downhill which meant we could still make it. We arrived at the CP at 10, giving us 2 hours to do the last 10k which was possible if it were on road. The guy there said it was actually only 8k to the finish which now made it sound like a breeze. However true to form this "downhill tarmac" was actually mostly uphill mud.
We agreed to run anything that was flat or down, even if it was only a few yards. We did this but soon found ourselves wading up in the mud again. Still, 8k in 2 hours is not much wuicker than we had been going over the really hard parts and now at least that river bed was behind us.
The last few K seem to wind through peoples back gardens and you have to be on the ball with the arrows. We went wrong a couple of times by sticking to the roads when in fact we should be in the mud. Around halfway in to the last section we could hear the finish, back down on the beach where we registered the day before. We could see the beach we were going to finish at but frustratingly the route kept turning back away from it. I considered just making a straight path to the beach which would have probably invovled jumping off a cliff. Finally on a bit of downhill tarmac there was a painted sign that said "3k to go", then we started some proper running again.
2k to go, 1k to go, seemed to take longer still but we did not care. Soon we were met by people pointing us into a finish shoot which involved running around the finish and then back round and up a ramp. The ramp was easy and we pegged it up to finish this off. 23 hours and 44 minutes.
That was the hardest 24 hours of running I have done. The torment and frustration of putting in so much effort and not going very far was incredible. I don't even need to do this kind of thing in preparation for the Trans US (a slightly bigger country than Gran Canaria) but was very happy to have done it. There was an all you can eat buffet at the end as well as beer. I manage a bottle in the 16 minutes that remained of my birthday and then staggered back to the taxi stop to get a cab home.
Though my legs did not feel too bad during the race I could not walk for 2 days, that's as bad as I remember being after a race since my first Spartathlon.
Update on 2011-03-18 10:44 by James Adams
Video of the elites. Much better camera work than mine but no footage of anyone falling over.
Well this weekend was supposed to be a nice 50 miler around the flattish Norfolk Poppyline run. However a combination of moving house, a friends leaving drinks and general can't-be-arsed-to-get-up-at-4-in-the-morning led to me ditching that and staying at home instead.
Perhaps I could say I was being sensible. I mean I do have an operation in 2 weeks time.
And a 123k race in 1 week.
So instead I signed up to a couple of much shorter races. I am thinking it is a good idea to do a load of shorter faster runs instead of always plodding the slow miles in preperation for the States. Plus it's nice sometimes to feel like you are actually running fast. All relative of course.
First up was the North of the Thames Cross Country RaceThat's not me.
On arrival at the NOTT XC in Kingsbury I found that my name was not actually on the list of runners which was odd because I signed up. There were a few signed up who were not coming so I could take one of their places however it was important not to give me the number of someone really fast in case I disgraced their name. Not sure who I ran as in the end, whoever is the slowest.
I was already very muddy as the fields were waterlogged and we watched the girls come round past where we were gathered. There was loads of space between the 20 odd runners who were in the race, it was quite low key. Fiona and Teresa came through looking like they had enjoyed a good roll around in the mud and were quite close to the leaders.
The race itself was easy. The men had one "small" lap of 2k then 2 of 3k. It did not feel even that far. I stuck to Frasier who was faster than me just to try and push myself a bit. The first lap was crowded but it spaced out and I had quite a good run of it for the next 2 and ran up what XC runners call a "hill". It was not really a hill.
In places it was almost as muddy as the nationals but I was really enjoying it and constantly bearing down of Frasier with my loud plodding and heavy breath. He must have thought a cow was chasing him. After a slow start I managed to hold my own in the next two laps and gradually creep up the field.
My time was 34.22 for the 5 miles which is much faster than I thought and not far off what I'd do a road 5 miles in. I reckon it was a bit short. That is a massive XC PB.
At the ceremony everyone (except me) seemed to get a prize. Fiona got 2nd female, Teresa 3rd Female and 2nd Vet. The Girls team won the "4 to score". The mens team did not win any of the 4 to score, 6 to score, 8 to score or 12 to score (prizes for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in all - I think there were more medals than runners). It was just like end of school year where in a crowded room for an hour I regretted being a lazy distuptive shite all year while everyone else got layers with shiny stuff like Mr T.
Sunday was a glorious morning and a few days before I found out about the Harrow Hill Race. It was 6 miles, it was a race, in Harrow and yes it had a hill. I have never done a 6 mile race before and was definitely on for a PB.
It was bereft of Serpies as the club championship half marathon was taking place in Tonbridge that day. When I first arrived there was a noticalble older demographic there of people who have done the race 10 times before. I overheard one conversation which included "I don't bother using vasaline anymore, nowadays nothing ever moves fast enough to cause any friction". Nice.
We gathered at the start line and everyone kept on moving back to avoid starting first. This race has an added quirk of awarding a "King and Queen of the Hill" award to the first man and woman to reach the top of the hill at about half a mile. The only other condition is that you must finish the race. I was no where near the front obviously but I managed to stay ahead of the first woman and declare myself (quietly) "Queen of the Hill". Then about 20 meters later she overtook me and cruised off into the distance. A great deal at half way
Basically the race is 2 laps. Uphill for the first mile, then down for the second and then up and down a bit for the third then repeat. Most of it is along pavements through Harrow and the roads are not closed but there is hardly anything around. After a mile I settled into a comfortable pace. I was expecting a time similar to a 10k on flat which nowadays for me would be about 40 if I was smashing it. I came in in just over 42 having screwed up the sprint finish (I sprinted towards where we started from but then discovered that the end was about another 100m along and up a hill). Problem with short races is that you can not walk up a hill ever.
I got a medal and thought this may be the shortest race I have ever got a medal for. Makes up for yesterday when on average everyone got 1.37 medals and I got none.
Not a bad weekend of running. I managed to complete 2 races at pace faster than Sharmans 100 mile pace. Really really looking forward to Gran Canaria next week.
It's been a strange couple of weeks for me. Coming off the back of a 365 mile January I was still feeling pretty good and was looking forward to completing the Enigma Quadzilla, 4 marathon in 4 days and then I was going to take it easy for a few weeks. However on the second day of the quadzilla disaster seemed to strike that looked to unravel (literally) my plans for the summer.
It actually started a week before at the Thames Trot. Well, actually it started about 8 years ago just days before I was running "The Marathon" in 2003, only my second marathon and in those days 26.2 miles was a big deal. Suffering from a bit of man flu along the river I was coughing quite a lot but one time near the end I felt a bulge in my groin as I coughed. Much as I love ultra marathons I rarely get a bulge in my shorts when running so this was something to pay attention to. My immediate reaction was "hello, I remember you" and thought back to 8 years ago when I had a hernia. Bollocks.
I ignored it for the remainder of the race and it seemed fine when I ran the following thursday in the first of the Enigma Marathons. I ran an easy 3.33 and felt quite good that I can do that kind of pace and not feel like I have exerted myself and was ready to do it again the next day. However that night I had a constant nagging ache that kept me up. It was not pain as such but felt like an organ was gently pressing against my skin requesting permission to leave.
I got to the second marathon but as soon as I started I was reminded of the nagging with every step. I get this quite a lot and the groin is a problem area for me but a little stretching and not letting it consume my mind usually sorts it out. However this was here to stay and although I was still running quite well and just as fast as yesterday I decided that I was not going to be able to enjoy a single step of this marathon today so after 9 miles I stopped and made an appointment to see my GP.
Can you see the bulge?I was hoping it was all in my head. I get plenty of groin strains but I recall the distinct feeling of organs trying to escape. I remember 8 years ago as I went to my doctor in Manchester. I knew pretty much that I had a hernia (my housemate was a doctor and he had a feel. Not sure what the other housemates would have said if they caught him with his hand down my pants). Anyway I went to the doctor and on pulling my pants down she (it would be a she wouldn't it?) said that she could barely see anything. "NOT THAT", I said "Look for the Hernia". No I didn't actually and I didn't even think it. She said "take it easy for a while. And good luck in the Marathon". The Marathon was only 5 days later, and it went fine. 3.57, stonking PB.
On pulling my pants down (to another lady) I really wanted to hear those words again "I can't see anything". On doing so and a lot of carefully timed coughing she confirmed that there was something there and was ready to refer me to a consultant. I arranged an appointment with a consultant a few days later who actually thought I had one on both sides and suggested I had ultrasound. Double bollocks.
Hernias are no big deal really. I got some messages saying that I could carry on as normal and that it really should not bother me. This was encouraging. I thought I could just carry on and when the time came to have the op they would just use a coathanger or something and pop it all back in. If I can get an op long before I set out to the States then that would be great. I am confident that even if I did not get a chance to run between now and then I could still finish the race.
On Thursday (less than a week after finding it) I had an appointment with the ultrasound person and for the third time in a week I was pulling my trousers in front of a complete stranger. I had become so comfortable with doing this that I just pulled them all the way down and the old chap (the doctor) looked embarrassed and said they didn't need to go down that far. He then covered my groin in grease and started the scanning of my nether regions while asking me to push "like I was having a baby". How the hell would I know how to do that? Those (men) who claim that giving birth is just like taking a big dump usually get more than a frown from any mother in earshot.
So for the first time in my life I tried to push my stomach through my scrotum so that he could see the strain on his screen. It did not look like much, he even turned the screen towards me so that I could see but it was just a swirling mess of white candy floss. Is it a boy or a girl? I asked. The Doc obviously heard that one a million times. In fact no amount of pushing could really produce anything and he concluded that I had no hernia (though I should wait for the final analysis) at all and if anything only a sprain on the right hand side. That was a relief though I did feel a bit like a drama queen.
So the following week I went back to the consultant where I expected a dressing down for time wasting when in fact he said that there was a hernia on the right side and he recommended getting it fixed. Doh. It looks something like this
He got his diary out and suggested some dates for my Latrosopic Hernia Repair. Basically they poke 2 holes in me, stick in a balloon, blow it up, poke some cameras in and push the organs back where they belong and then put in a mesh. I will be in and out within a day and apparently back to normal within weeks. My operation is on the 12th.
It does not mess my plans up too much. I still intend to run the Trans Gran Canaria race on my birthday on the 5th March (I will probably spend my entire birthday running, how cool is that?). I have had to cancel the Git Pit Marathons on the 12/13th which I was looking forward to. I wanted to run the Orion 15 the week later and then the Eco Trail 50 the week after that. Hopefully I still can do both but will have to see.
All in all I am not too worried and am pleased that I can get this sorted long before I head out to the States.
This is the second time part of my digestive system has tried to escape my body. Perhaps it is telling me something?
It was a long coach ride up from London to Staffordshire for the National Cross Country Championships. This was only my second XC race of the season despite making a pledge to do more. The 40 odds Serpies on the bus seemed nervous, particularly as we passed the Watford Gap where a bout of incontinence struck everyone and caused us to have to stop in 2 service stations. We don't go up norf that often.
It was raining all the way up, prompting conversations about 12mm or 15mm. At first I thought it was triathletes talking about their dicks but later realised that they were talking about length of spikes. I had no idea. I listened to about 5 different theories of mud but all of this would be of no use since I didn't have any spikes. I was wearing my imacculately clean Serpie coloured Walsh fell shoes.
On arrival we were presented with a huge field of mud on which to pitch our stand. It was just like Glastonbury except there were a lot less beards. All the other running clubs had tents and ground mats whereas we had just a flag sticking out of the ground and a lot of clean shoes. No one would have guessed that we were the biggest running club in the country.
I think that cross country running seems to be stuck in the 50's. The women run less distance than the men. 6k vs 8k in normal races and then 8k vs 12k in this race. In the distances I do I am used to running alongside women who have to complete the same distances and will often comfortably beat the men. I can understand the seperation of races (for crowding reasons) but not of distance and a lot of youngsters get into running this way and will think that this is normal. I am sure that I am not the first person to complain about this, I suspect that most of the women fell the same way. Or perhaps they are not worrying their pretty little heads about it?
There were lots of races before ours and we were told that due to some mud that the races were going to be cut short which was a massive disappointment to everyone. I had already broken my rule of not spending longer travelling to a race than it takes to complete (6 hours driving for 1 hour running??) and was very aware that the shorter they made the race the more likely it was that I would be last.
We watched the girls race before us, they had their 8k shorted to 6k and this consisted of 3 short laps of 2k and there was no hill. We stood and clapped as girls in various states of exhaution tried to compete with the terrain. It looked like really hard work and occassionally you spotted a girl with mud all over her face who had stacked it ealier. I tried not to laugh but it is hard.
It was the widest start line I have ever been on. I was too fat to get anywhere near the front and was happy to start at the back. We had been told that we'd be running 10k and that was going to be one short lap of 2k and 2 long laps of 4k which includes "the hill". The gun went and like greyhounds (and labradors) we all squeezed into a narrower stream of mud churners and ran towards the crest of a small incline.
Not long in I bumped into Stuart Shiperly and chatted to him for a bit. It didn't really seem like the sort of race that you should be chatting in and everyone seemed quite serious. I pushed on after the first 2k lap, some of the sloppy inclines were really hard going. There was not a huge amount of space and people would run zig-zagged and get in the way quite a lot. I ran up every hill and often bumped into someone who suddenly decided to stop and walk.
The 2nd lap involved passing the start again and going down into a very large puddle, around some grassy areas and then up the "big hill". It wasn't really that big and in fact it was easier than much of the rest of the course because it had not been cut up by other races as it was left out of them. It's a shame the girls were not allowed to do this as they would have really enjoyed it and it would have churned it up for us and made it a proper mud chute. I loved the idea of people slipping on their arses and slidding back down the hill.
One more big lap and I was done. I was really impressed with my choice of footwear and would recommend them for this kind of thing. At no point did I lose any traction and unlike long spikes (apparently) it does not hurt to run on harder ground. I finished in the top 64.363% which is exactly what I was aiming for. 53 minutes to do a 10k. I've done slower.
It was an awesome weekend where the Serpie girls took bronze and the Men's were 12th (I think). The girls results were the best national ranking ever. The good thing about being nearly last is that you don't have to hang around for long at the end, they all have to wait for you. We got on the coach covered in mud and headed to Derby for a night out with the Shire folk. We eventually found a really nice pub but not before walking through the centre of Derby and being horrified by the lack of clothes on it's ladies. Take back what I said earlier, I think the women really do prefer it shorter.
Another productive morning where I thought I'd recreate the conversation I'd often have on a Monday morning at work while I try to explain why I prefer spending my weekends outdoors rather that watching a TV box set.
It occured to me that runners need to have a special greeting when meeting at the start of races to avoid that uncomfortable moment where a warm and greasy hand meets another warm and greasy hand. Invariably about 5 seconds after you have used your digits to apply lubrication to low hanging moving parts about 6 people will want to shake hands with you. This was about the 6th race of the year and we are all so familiar that there is no shame in it anymore. But in needs to stop and be replaced by something more hygenic. Any suggestions on how to get round this problem then let me know. "Run all the way with you??? HA HA HA HA HA"
2nd week in a row I was doing a new race, the Thames Trot. One that I decided not to do 2 years ago purely because I thought the name was too silly but I have since got over that. There were the usual suspects present, Mark, Rob, Smelly, Trin. A couple of guys I had not seen in a while were there too, Matt Mahoney who I met in the MDS and who is doing Spartathlon this year and Neil Bryant who I met in the Spartathlon and is doing the Spartathlon this year. Nicole Brown was there too, not seen her for ages but can usually still hear her.
The forecast promised an unspecified chance of probable rain. It looked quite grey to start with and was quite mild. I decided to only take a bottle belt with me this time as my arms were aching form being slashed by bags recently.
My chatting with Neil and ROb lasted about as long as it took to realise that I could not talk and breathe while running at their pace. They ran on through the muddy fields of the ruver path. I have not been this far up the river before (that's not a metaphor). I have ran a couple of times into London from Reading but have not been as far as Oxford. It seems the further you go out the muddier the path is. It was hard work again plodding through the soff ground but at least it wasn't like last week. What is harder to run on? Molehills or Mountains?
I ran with Mark till just after the first CP where he seemed to slow. He had just run 201k in a 24 hour track race last week so I could understand why he might be a bit slower than normal. I pushed on through the mud. Along the way I bumped into more people I knew by face but not name and we all did our Troy Maclure impressions as usual. "Hi I'm James Adams, you may remember me from such Ultra Marathons as the Ultra Race 90 and the washed out diet UTMB". I ran a little with a chap called Cliff who was much faster than I was and seemed to want to drag me up hills. Yes there were hills on the Thames Path.
I did the Thames Trot instead of the Pilgrims Challenge that I enjoyed so much last yeat just because I wanted to do different things. I can't complain that there is too much on now but it is quite difficult chosing between events now. I decided to help out at the second day of the Pilgrims tomorrow though and it would be great to see Gemma who was running plus a lot of other friends.
Around half way the river cuts through the Ridgeway path that I am a little familiar with from the Druids Challenge. On a flat section of river it's quite nice to be surrounded either side by some beautiful chalk hills and you could actually see the path by the river becoming chalky. I'm not much of a geologist but I thought that was pretty cool. The third checkpoint was the checkpoint of my dreams, sausage rolls, pork pies, cake, crisps and drinks. I took a photo but forgot to eat all of it. Most of the others had sweets and drinks including energy powder which I filled up with at all 6 CP's.
I couldn't be arsed really, I had no problems as such I just didn't feel like putting much effort in. I started to run with the leading ladies at around half way but spent a lot of my time walking and taking photos and facebooking. The legs were not really in it today, even when the energy sapping mud of the first half gave way to some much nicer running path and road at times. I asked if we we had done a marathon yet and was told we had done 32 miles. At least it wasn't dragging. I can't really explain why I was not into it and am not too worried by it. It was still a fantastic event. This is why I run
Later on I had to stop and stretch a couple of times but managed to keep up a shuffle and navigate my way to the finish. There was a bit of map reading towards the end as I was unsure whether I was running on river path or someones back garden, some of the people around here have far too much money. Who needs a railway in their back garden? With a station?
The end came in around 8 hours, not bad for what felt fairly gentle. Neil and Rob had finished an hour before and Mark and Claire came in about 10 minutes later. Richard Taylor finished under 9 in his first race over a marathon and Matt Mahoney also blitzed it sub 7. I then went about my epic train journey to Merstham to get to the start of the Pilgrims Challenge that I was helping out on while trying to keep up with the Rocky Racoon 100 that had not long started in Texas. First update was that Ian Sharman had run the first 2 laps (40 miles) in 4.56 and was in first place by about 8 minutes in a field that included Scott Jurek, Anton Kuprica, Karl Meltzer and Zack Gingerich. Brave or stupid?
I was regretting taking so many photos in the race as my battery was dying but had to keep up with the race. The times of each lap came back. 60 miles in 7.26, 80 in 10.04. He was not slowing down and with each lap he was gaining on the elite field. Tired and with a busy day ahead I could not go to sleep until about 1am where the final result came in that Ian had finished in 12.44, a course record and half an hour faster than Anton, averaging 7.38 minute miles and getting very close to a 100 mile trail world record. Made we wish I had gone a bit faster today. The path gets better...
The Pilgrims race was brilliant. I was helping on CP 1 and CP 2. It was quite windy and standing around for hours is actually quite hard work. It is great sometimes to be on the other side of running events. Overall it was a great weekend and a very eventful one for UK ultra-running. There will be plenty more of those to come, but I now have a drought of 3 weeks without an ultra marathon. Still, the 4 marathons I have later this week might help with that craving.
"Yorkshire Portions" are a warning they put on food up norf to prevent you from biting off more than you can chew. I ordered a "regular" fish and chips the night before the race and that was more than enough for me. Back in London I would have defintely ordered the large and an extra side of onion rings and still had room left over for a cheesecake at the end.
It would appear that the same warnings are needed for their running events too. On arriving at Whitby just north of the North Yorkshire Moors Gemma was badgering me about when to book dinner later that evening. It's 50 miles so on a good day that could be around 8 hours but if it's hard then it could be 12. I was joking about it taking 12 hours but on reflection I should have realised that it's only 50% extra, just like all the food they serve. The Easy bit
I signed up for the Frostbite 50 around the time when temperatures of -17C were being recorded up here and I wanted to know what proper cold felt like. The Moors are another place in the UK that shamefully I had yet to visit and a 50 mile race seemed like the perfect excuse for the long drive up to Whitby. This was a new "test" event for an new Ultra Marathon organising outfit in the UK called AdventureHub. They were very well organised, they even supplied the race briefing in Powerpoint format. That was the best Powerpoint presentation I have seem since my friends plan of his attempt on the Bob Graham Round next year (I am the fat one with a beer). There were only 50 places in total for this event and it was not advertised much as they wanted to trial it with a smaller number to see how it goes. Always happy to be a guinea pig when it comes to running lots and lots.
The morning was really quite sppoky, I was wandering around Whitby Abbey and the graveyards in the dark trying to find the start. It was in a nearby field and those vertical banners that say "something unusual going on here" and luckily there were toilets on site open from 7.30 (remember for next year). I tried to look as northern as possible (I don't really know which one I am, I think the North vs South divide has forsaken Leicester. You have it, no you have it) by wearing shorts. All but one guy (from Leeds) was wearing tights.
The route looked quite simple on the map. Start off with around 6 miles of coastal path, then around 4 miles of disused railtrack towards the moors then a few fields. The Marathon runners (or as people like to call it the "half") would come back whereas the ultra runners would head into the moors for a 24ish mile loop. The profile did not look too hilly so I was expecting to finish before dark.
The first 6 miles are along the beautiful Cleveland Way, everything you want from a coastal path; hills, steps, stiles, streams, a decent path and stunning views. Been a while since I've been on the coast for running and I do miss it. We had "good" weather conditions and the path was quite frozen so mud was not really a problem. The Marathon started 5 minutes before us to split us up a bit and soon we were catching them. No one really went for it at the start and I settled into a group of about 8 people who were setting the pace.
Early on I was running with David Miles who has practically the same race schedule as I do. It was good to get moving and warm and before long we came off the coastal path onto some track and into checkpoint 1 just outside of Robin Hood Bay. No one stayed too long and soon we were on the old railway and a really easy running path and i got chatting to another guy and a lady. A couple of things happened that happen quite often in these races. Firstly I was chatting to a chap called Richard Webster and inevitably we get on to discussing race CV's. His talk of the 6633 and mine of Badwater caused us to look at each other and say "We met in the UTMB". We did indeed meet there, after about 16 hours of arduous mountain climbing with a hangover. Small world. We were both pretty knackered back then but funny how we remember CV's and not faces. The Cleveland way near the start (and end)
Secondly I was asking the lady about the Trans-Slovenia race (it was on her top) and she was happy to chat away about it. Not long I realised it was none other than Sharon Gayter, a UK ultra running legend and still holds the fastest time for a Brit (male or female) at Badwater. It was great to be running in such company and as she was local I tried to stick to her to avoid getting lost and exchange stories.
The nice track ended and we were running into large fields with mud and gates and animals. A few hills here and there and we could see the runners of the marathon coming back from their turnaround. They were not that far ahead really, less than 2 miles which made me think we were going a little fast. I was tempted to shout "slackers" at them as they returned but decided not to, I needed the oxygen for the hills. CP2 was bang on 13 miles and took around 2 hours. Simple extrapolation meant that even at this pace we were looking at 8 hours at best, but we had just done the easy bit. 10 hours was more likely.
Gemma had booked the fish and chips for 8.15pm. The race started at 8am so realistically I had to finish under 11 hours to be able to get back to the hotel, shower and get to the restaurant. It would have been nice to finish in good time so that I could relax a bit and do the usual routine before eating but it was not essential. If I took too long so we missed the one time in 10 years where Gemma could have gluten free batter fish and chips I would never be forgiven.
The miles on the moors were hard. Almost straight after the 2nd CP we were on them and although they are not very hilly they were really hard work to run over. A very narrow path where the mud was so frozen that it was like running on bricks. There were footprints of the last people who came here, probably weeks ago, frozen into the ground. Thick ice covered any puddle but it was not quite thick enough to stop your feet falling right through and getting an icy blast of water right up your shorts. Looks refreshing when it's in some silly vitamin water advert but not on the freezing Yorkshire Moors.
It's amazing hwo quickly you can feel like you are in the wilderness. I was on an A road about an hour ago and now all I could see for miles was the harsh terrain and thick heathers that looked dead. I like to think about where I'd shelter or seek refuge in the event of an emergency and there was nowhere here to do that, no trees or large rocks or buildings to shelter near. I can fully understand why there was a more significant kit list than usually in a 50 miler. The paths seemed to go on indefinitely and I could still see all the runners ahead of me, including the leader who was over a mile away. It was like the never ending path in the Labyrinth (the film that you wonder how your parents allowed you to watch given how tight David Bowie's tights were). In the film I recall there was a snail to tell her that she could just walk through the walls and get to where she needed to be. There was no snail here though or even a wall, just miles of nothing.
This was the path we had to run on for miles and milesI worried about the fish and chips. The 3rd CP would not arrive and I send word that I was not even at 20 miles yet, 4.30 hours in. Alas it did come and I said to the marshall "please don't tell me this is 20 miles or something". In fact it was more like 24. Nearly half way in under 5 hours. Phew, I might make it to the ball.
The Checkpoints were quite well loaded with stuff. Tea, coffee, soup, energy drink and water. Biscuits, sweets, pretzels and bread. You are supposed to carry enough food with you to "last the night" in the event of an emergency. I think you'd freeze to death before starving. I lost Sharon at CP3 who ran straight through whereas I caught up to David, Richard and another chap called Charles as I arrived at the CP. I stopped to get some soup and they marched on. I planned to keep them in sight as I did not know what page of the map we were on anymore, I was just following a line of people. Then I caught up to them at a junction were were not supposed to be at. We had gone too far and were off the maps we had been given which meant that we had to get the OS map out (1 of the 4 of us had one despite this being a compulsary item too). It took a while for us to figure out where we were and a detour through someones back garden and we were back on track.
After what was many hours the 4 of us ran together through some wonderful woods and into CP 4 where we found that the leaders were now about 40 minutes ahead. That diversion had cost us a bit of time and making the Fish and Chips seem less likely. If were were near the front and still likely to finish in the dark then what about everyone else? I wouldn't fancy being out on these moors in the dark, it's hard enough finding where you are in the light.
We hung around at the CP for a while before heading up what was the biggest climb of the run into somemore frostbitten fields of nothingness. We were supposed to follow the outside of a small forest and continue along the harsh track through the Heather. It was cooling down a fair bit so we tried to keep moving. I was really looking forward to the return to the familiar 13 mile stretch that would take us back home. CP5 was the same as CP2 only now had a lot more food at it. The guys there reminded me of my Fish and Chips appointment at 8.15 and that I would "probably" make it. It was starting to get dark and I didn't want to put on my head torch until I absolutely needed to.
We got lost again and went too far along some paths in the field and didn't really know where we were but knew we were now headed towards Robin Hood bay which we could see lit up in the fading light. Not sure whether we would end up arriving at the end of a cliff we cut across the moors to try to find a path that would lead us back to the bay. A bit of scrambling and then some road found us back onto the railtrack. Down the railtrack which became pitch black as it is covered by trees and it was a cloudy day.
We were running this race in "good" conditions. There was no wind, no rain, the temperature was cold but not as cold as it could have been. I was finding it much harder work than the Rotherham 50 in hideous condtions a few years back without really being able to figure out why. We got lost a little and I think added about 3 miles onto the 50, however it didn't feel like we should be going this slowly. It was the first time for a long time that I had run in the dark and it became harder. The ground beneath us was now fairly even but what was previously covered in ice had now defrosted and turned to mud, which made the plodding heavy. The 4 of us were the only ones for miles trecking along the coastline towards lighthouses in the distance.
Last CP, when I arrived one of the marshalls sprung into life to text Gemma that I was here and that dinner might still happen. It was about 6pm now, I had about 1.30 hours max to make it to the end, otherwise I'd have to have a wet-wipe shower. I wasn't too bothered my that, Ultra-runners are not too bothered by showers though I suspect Gemma would protest. This race was all about me getting to the Magpie Cafe on time. and miles and miles and miles
The last section was slow too as it was muddier than the start and made the hills hard work. Plus the darkness. With a slow plod we finally saw the ancient ruins of the old Whitby Abbey and then the car park and field of the finish. David, Richard, Charlie and I all crossed the line in joint 4th in about 11.30 hours, at 7.30, giving me 45 minutes to get back, shower and head for the food. Did I mention that? The winner did about 2 hours faster than us.
This really was a tough but most enjoyable race. Whitby and the Moors are great and definitely will consider coming back next year. I think the entry should be extended, it would probably have been easier for everyone if there were more people out on the moors, more people to read maps. There was a 14 hour cut-off which must have pushed a lot of people out though the marshalls were keen on staying behind and wanting everyone to finish. I don't know what the finish rates are at this point as they have not been released.
